boatman’s quarterly review the journal of the Grand Canyon River Guide’s, Inc. • voulme 27 number 3 fall 2014 the journal of Grand Canyon River Guide’s,

BrianPrez Blurb • Changing of the GuardHansen • Farewells • Endangered Suckers Book/DVD • Kolb on a Rope • LTEMP Update • Fall Rendezvous Save the Confluence • Back of the Boat • S (Smith) - Rigs • Contributors boatman’s quarterly review Prez Blurb …is published more or less quarterly by and for Grand Canyon River Guides. arlier this spring, out there at Hatchland we had Grand Canyon River Guides a stellar turnout for the Guides Training Semi- is a nonprofit organization dedicated to Enar, in fact, it was near record attendance. And for the last few years as well. So why is that? Is it be- Protecting Grand Canyon cause of our collective desire for education? Just some- Setting the highest standards for the river profession thing to do before the season gets going? A chance to Celebrating the unique spirit of the river community party with our fellow river runners that we may not Providing the best possible river experience see all summer? Or is it just that there are now simply more of us than there have ever been before? Who General Meetings are held each Spring and Fall. Our knows, maybe all of the above. Board of Directors Meetings are generally held the first And despite the large number of boaters from all Wednesday of each month. All innocent bystanders are walks of life who come to this remote corner of the urged to attend. Call for details. desert each spring to celebrate the uniqueness of our Staff community, to partake in a little knowledge, fun and gcrg Executive Director Lynn Hamilton socializing, is still struggling for nominations to Board of Directors fill seats on the board, and in the presidency. We (the President Katie Proctor current board) cannot fairly nominate and vote in a Vice President Laura Fallon new crew every year. We as individuals don’t know Treasurer Fred Thevenin every river guide out there that may be a perfect fit for Directors Mikenna Clokey this rewarding and important role in our community. chelsea DeWeese We need diversity, (as a few people have mentioned) stephen Kenney we want diversity. Jalynda McKay It is essential to the success of this organization. Ben Reeder We need some motor guides, some oar. Some new Justin Salamon young perspectives and some experienced wisdom gcrg’s amwg and knowledge. Grand Canyon River Guides is a real representative Sam Jansen organization, we are a real voice that is heard. Not just gcrg’s twg a bunch of boatmen with opinions. Representative Jerry Cox We need new fundraising ideas, new board mem- Bqr Editors Katherine Spillman bers and general members. People who have a passion mary Williams for all things Grand Canyon. You know how all season long, after the kitchen has Our editorial policy, such as it is: provide an open been cleaned up and things settle down, we congregate forum. We need articles, poetry, stories, drawings, on the boats and tell stories and discuss the things photos, opinions, suggestions, gripes, comics, etc. that are worrying us about the way they are managing Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Grand this thing or that? Or how we feel about pack rafters Canyon River Guides, Inc. in river camps and not being able to hike up to Beaver Written submissions should be less than 15oo Falls? We talk about new restrictions, and rules and words and, if possible, be sent on a cd or emailed to not being allowed to collect driftwood during the gcrg. Microsoft Word files are best but we can trans- commercial season. Projects such as the Skywalk and late most programs. Include postpaid return envelope the Escalade are discussed at length and our feelings if you want your disk or submission returned. vocalized in many colourful expletives. These are just Deadlines for submissions are the 1st of February, to name a few. May, August and November. Thanks! The point is that we all really care about this place. Our office location: 515 West Birch, Flagstaff, az 86001 We want to see it taken care of, we want to see respon- Office Hours: 10:30–5:00, Monday through Friday sible choices made in regards to the future. Well? What do you think? Wouldn’t it be great to be on the side of Phone 928/773-1075 Fax 928/773-8523 E-mail [email protected] Cover: Brian Hansen circa 1981. Website www.gcrg.org

page 2 grand canyon river guides proactive change? To be part of a collective voice that standing for our world in some of the folks who just will be heard? To actually have a chance to make a dif- thought they were going on vacation. I would sure like ference? Think about it. Then decide if it is worth one to know that this generation of Grand Canyon boaters, hour per week of your time reading emails and doing and the ones that follow, continue to take our role as some research. If it is worth one meeting per month stewards of this unimaginably valuable and precious either in person or over the phone. Next year,we need place seriously. And that we do our best to keep those just a few more folks to nominate themselves or their crazy development ideas such as the Escalade project friends for the future of gcrg and the Grand Canyon. and others like it out of the Grand Canyon. The developers are not taking time off or sitting on It has been a pleasure and a privilege to have been a their hands here. They are very much invested in mov- part of gcrg these past four years. It has been an edu- ing forward with their dream and their future plans cational and meaningful chapter of my life, and I hope for this majestic landscape. We must also stay involved, that I’ve helped to make a difference. and gather momentum and numbers to share in this Happy boating to all you lucky people that find battle for what we care about and what we value about yourselves on this crazy path in life. The place simply the Grand Canyon experience. wouldn’t be the same without you. Try to keep the After twelve seasons of living, breathing and loving bumpy side up, stay protected from the sun as best you my job as a river guide in the Grand Canyon. After col- can. Learn as much as you care to know, share what lectively spending well over three years of my life on you are passionate about. And may the current always the river and below the rim. After much of who I am take you where you want to go. Most importantly, and how I view the world being colored by the experi- don’t forget to have some fun while you’re down there. ences I have had here, I think I am ready to start a new All of you crazy river rats! adventure outside of the “Big Ditch.” I hope that I have made a small difference in a Ariel Anderson few lives, and maybe helped instil a love and under-

Changing of the Guard

y the time this issue of the newsletter goes to our sincerest appreciation for all the energy and ideas press, the polls for the gcrg elections will be exhibited by outgoing directors Kevin Greif, Greg Bclosed, with the new president/vp elect and Woodall, and Evan Tea. They exemplified the legacy of three new gcrg directors taking office on September involvement and advocacy that gcrg has been blessed 1st. Additionally, Katie Proctor (azra) will move up with over the years. You can bet they’ll remain very from vice president to president, bringing her bound- involved in issues such as the Glen Canyon Dam eis less enthusiasm and stewardship ethic to bear as we (ltemp), lending their voices and professional perspec- face challenging issues over the next year. tives to help craft a sustainable and healthy future for I want to express our gratitude to outgoing gcrg the Colorado River. president, Ariel Anderson, for her inspirational lead- Next time you run into any of these fine folks on ership born of a profound belief in the necessity of the river, please thank them for their dedicated service protecting the place we love for future generations to to gcrg and for a job well done. They really stepped enjoy. We wish her the best for whatever her future up. It’s as simple, yet as profound as that. What an may bring, knowing that her love of wild places and amazing guide community we have! of the Colorado River will never wane. We also extend

boatman’s quarterly review page 3 Farewells

Ron Beecher — July 28, 1953–May 2014 together we had our sons with us. It was a pleasure working with someone who had such a great sense of he river community lost another good friend humor and knowledge; a privilege to have known him. and boatman this spring. Ron was a boatmen We’ll miss you buddy. Tfrom the ’70s–’80s era. One thing that made him unique is the fact that he was the first Hualapai to Roger Murphy: I’ll never forget the day we stopped at work full time in the Canyon. The following are some Hermit for photos. The rapid was poppin’. Ron gave stories from, Roger Murphy, Bob and Clair Quist. me his camera and I said I would take a picture of his first flip. Well, you can guess Bob Quist: I first met Ron the rest. He floated by hold- in the spring of 1971. I was ing on to his boat cursing working the summer for Fred me! His only flip. He was a Burke’s start-up, Arizona Riv- master oarsman—smooth, er Runners. Fred had realized no wasted strokes—made it the potential of Diamond look so easy. Ron was in de- Creek as a takeout, if the mand along with his brother road could be maintained. Lyman as hunting guides on Towards that end he made the reservation. He was well friends with Ron’s parents, known amongst sheep and Monroe and Margaret Beech- elk trophy hunters for his er who were working for the successes. I feel very fortu- tribe. In the process, Ron had nate to have him a part of my been offered a job swamping life, a good friend—so long for the summer. Ron fit in ex- partner! tremely well; he was already a seasoned hunter, total out- Clair Quist: We can’t say doors person and knew the enough about Ron and his lower canyon well. The first contribution to river running night out as young guys with in Grand Canyon. He was a to much energy, we started life long friend. When Pam’s a little grab-ass wrestling dad died unexpectedly, I was on the beach. I had wrestled on the river with her brother in high school, was not too Mark. We had just run Lava long out of the Army and in and were pretty darn happy pretty good shape. Thinking when a helicopter comes and I would have no problem to put this young guy on the lands on our beach. We knew there was serious trouble ground and in the process make sure he knew who at home for one of us when we saw Ron get out of the top dog was, I made my move. I suddenly found the bird. There were four of us guides standing on the myself doing a flip in mid-air, came down hard on my beach waiting to see who Ron had come to replace. back. Ron with a little chuckle walked over and with a He walks up to Mark, hugs him and tells him about little kick to the ribs, informed me that it probably was his dad. Mark says to receive that kind of news came not a great idea to mess with him. Laughing, he helped best from such a good friend. Ron was a family man me up; I knew I had made friends with this guy. The with kid’s he loved and took care of his parents. He years went by. Ron rowed for Wilderness World and called us the week he died, not indicating how serious then for Moki Mac. He was a total natural on the his health problem was; he just called to tell us not to oars and looked like a ballet dancer on the water. The worry about him. Adios Buddy, we love you. memories flood in; Ron on a Cataract trip, patiently explaining to a matronly older woman how to tell the Roger Murphy, Bob and Clair Quist difference between a ram and a ewe bighorn, “You see you look between the rear legs.” On our last Grand trip

page 4 grand canyon river guides Josh Lowry — June 27, 1952–August 2, 2014 flight to the remote Chilean village of Villa Bernardo O’Higgins, only accessible by plane, or horse. From osh Lowry died in a fall while scouting Benham there, they negotiated a ten-hour boat trip across Lago Falls (Class v) on the Deschutes River in Oregon O’Higgins to the outlet where the Rio Pascua begins. Jon August 2. Leaving his Subaru with kayaks on The river was steep with large volume (50,000 cfs), top, he traversed to a cliff above the falls to look it over making it more powerful than any other river the when he slipped and fell 53 feet to the bottom of the group had run. The team was forced to be uniquely cliff, landing in two feet of water. He was alone and no creative in their approach. Afraid to lose their paddles, one saw him fall. Passersby were unable to reach him they tethered them to their wrists so that they could and alerted the county sheriff. not be torn from their hands while navigating the Josh first started paddling inflatable kayaks on maelstrom. Scouting the river was nearly impossible rivers in Tennessee and through the dense rain quickly worked his way forest. Josh and his team up to Class v runs. When emerged triumphantly five he mastered the inflat- days later at the ocean where able, Josh started running they had arranged for a other river craft, including launch to transport them kayaks. Josh went with his sixty miles across the ocean brother, Dave Lowry, as to the village of Tortel. Since a swamper on azra trips then only two more teams in Grand Canyon in the have dared to return! late-’70s and early-’80s. In Futaleufu, Josh has Azra, Hatch, and Moki long been known for his ef- Mac recognized his talents forts to involve the commu- and put him to work in nity with the river and also Grand Canyon. Josh also for making sure that anyone worked for Hatch in Idaho with an interest in the river for several years. had the opportunity to ex- Josh kayaked in Chile with azra buddies, Wesley perience it. Likewise, Josh fit right in with the subsis- Smith, Suzanne Jordan, and Kevin Johnson in 1986. He tence economy of the valley, pasteurizing milk from quickly got hooked on the fun to be had down south. his neighbor’s cows and canning preserves with the After several extended kayaking trips in the Andes abundant fruit that the valley has to offer. No matter in the mid-’90s, Josh moved to Futaleufu, Chile, and what the situation was, he always sought to enhance started his own river company, Futaleufu Explore, the community that had adopted him. which ran paddle boats on the very challenging Class v Josh always maintained an interest in any kind of Futaleufu River. river experience with a wide variety of boating part- Kayaking aficionados know Josh for his many first ners all over North and South America. He was a great descents in the western u.s., Mexico, and throughout boater, a renegade, a man of few words with a big heart the Andes. Josh put an incredible amount of energy and a bigger laugh. He lived in the moment and lived into running as many different rivers as he could. for his passion, boating. Josh was introverted and was Adventurous boaters exploring Chile are always fas- most comfortable in an environment where he knew he cinated to look through his copec gas station map of excelled—on the water. On land he was always slightly Chile. Josh kept a detailed ledger on the ocean side of uncomfortable; in a kayak he was at one with himself the map that listed the names and difficulty of every and the river. He lived simply and lightly in the world, Chilean and Argentinian river that he knew. He had and focused on the present moment. Josh’s friends and run most of them, but he always had a list of new runs acquaintances will never forget his distinctive laugh or he wanted to complete. his infectious energy for running rivers. Most captivating to Josh was the Rio Pascua. Dauntingly remote and one of Chile’s largest volume Dave Kashinski and Glenn Rink rivers, the Pascua was slated for three hydroelec- tric dams. In March of 1999, Josh was able to round To read a wonderful 2010 profile of Josh by Tyler Wil- up three partners for a descent. This was not your liams, published in Kayak Session magazine, go here: standard river trip. Getting to the put-in required a issuu.com/joshlowry/docs/josh-lowry-profile boatman’s quarterly review page 5 Grand Canyon Boaters Now Float Over Newly Discovered Endangered Razorback Suckers Spawning in the River

his spring, as part of a study funded by the nership among Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, Na- Bureau of Reclamation to determine razorback tional Park Service, u.s. Fish and Wildlife Service and Tsucker conservation status, habitat use, and u.s. Geological Survey, who have worked for recovery movements in lower Grand Canyon, recently hatched of this species side-by-side with Arizona state officials, (larval) fish were discovered in several samples Indian tribes, private landowners, and researchers.” downstream of Lava Falls Rapid. Additionally, an Razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus) is an en- adult razorback sucker that had been sonic-tagged dangered fish historically found only in the Colorado and released in Lake Mead in 2010 was detected by an River Basin, from the Green River in Wyoming to automated detection device a few miles below Lava the Gulf of California in Mexico. The genus means “razor”–“neck” and the spe- cies name derives from an error—the first described razorback sucker was incor- rectly labeled as being col- lected from Texas. They are the largest species of suckers that live in the Colorado River, reach a maximum length of 36 inches, and can weigh almost ten pounds. They can live up to forty years or more in the wild, feeding on a variety of Wild Razorback sucker in lower Grand Canyon. Photo courtesy NPS insects, crustaceans, algae, and inorganic material. Dams, water diversions, poisoning projects, and the introduction of nonnative fish species have led to the decline in razorback sucker throughout the Basin, and listing as “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act in 1991. Naturally spawn- ing and recruiting fish are thought to be limited to Lake Mead, where the population has been stable or growing for many years. Larval Razorback sucker pictured next to a penny, collected from Grand Canyon National Park in The April 2014 discovery April 2014. Photo courtesy NPS of larval razorback sucker is part of a new project to Falls. These are significant findings because the species learn more about how the species uses the Colorado was considered extirpated from Grand Canyon and River in Grand Canyon and the inflow to Lake Mead. was only recently rediscovered after a twenty-plus year Previous studies suggested that wild razorback suckers absence. “The discovery that the razorback suckers are were migrating from various locations between Lake spawning in the national park far upstream from Lake Mead and the Colorado River in lower Grand Canyon, Mead is good news for this endangered species,” said and possibly spawning in several locations. In the last Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, Anne Castle. couple of years several fish were tracked upstream as “It is also a demonstration of the power of the part- far as Separation Rapid (River Mile 240), and wild un-

page 6 grand canyon river guides Looking for small Razorback sucker in lower Grand Canyon, Wild Razorback sucker captured during AGFD monitoring around April 2014. Photo courtesy NPS. Spencer Creek in 2012. Photo courtesy NPS. tagged fish were captured in lower Grand Canyon as ing find, especially since they were captured so far part of annual monitoring in 2012 and 2013 conducted upstream in the river, and in numbers that seem to by the Arizona Game and Fish Department. The new suggest that more than just a few fish are spawning study began in March of 2014 with the release of nine at one time. While researchers are still identifying sonic-tagged fish into the river just below Lava Falls larvae from the initial surveys, 47 larval razorback Rapid, and the installation of detection devices every sucker have been identified to date from nine sampling five miles (from river miles 179–280) to monitor their localities spanning 56 miles of the Colorado River movements in that portion of the river, with the hope through lower Grand Canyon. Additional sampling that the tagged fish would lead the biologists to wild for larval fish will continue, but Howard Brandenburg fish and spawning areas. of asir llc, an expert on the early life stages of these Sampling for smaller life stages (larvae and juve- fish, said the capture of so many larval fish this early niles) is also being conducted to determine how the in the study is certainly significant because it shows different life stages of razorback sucker use the river. that adult razorback sucker are occupying portions of This portion of the study has two components, with Grand Canyon, there are favorable spawning habitats the principal difference being the size of the fish that in the river, and nursery habitats are available for the are targeted. Both crews sample low-velocity habitats growth of larvae. with seines, following a spatially balanced random “Grand Canyon is becoming a significant basin- sampling design that allows them to collect fish in wide haven for the endangered fishes in the Colorado habitats suitable for specific life stages but maintains unbiased samples. The “larval fish crew” targets fish that are generally less than half an inch-long, while the “small-bodied crew” targets fish two inches to six inches-long that were spawned during previous years. The larval fish portion of the study provides informa- tion on the date, duration, and location of spawning by this unique fish while the small-bodied component yields critical information on retention and recruit- ment of early (and rare) age classes (juveniles) of razorback sucker. While the project has only been going for a few months, numerous sonic-tagged razorbacks have been detected in the river from Lava Falls downstream to Lake Mead. Furthermore, several smaller fish, likely hatched earlier this year or even last year, have been collected in seines. The sampling has even turned up several young-of-year humpback chub in the lower “Listening” for sonic-tagged Razorback sucker in lower Grand Canyon. The larval razorback sucker were a surpris- Canyon. Photo courtesy NPS. boatman’s quarterly review page 7 River,” said Leslie Fitzpatrick, biologist for the Book and DVD u.s. Fish and Wildlife Service. Brandon Albrecht and Ron Kegerries of bio-west Inc., have been Announcement capturing and counting the fish throughout Lake Mead as part of the now eighteen year-old study there. They both felt this information represents new video, The Rivers and Canyons of the a new chapter in the evolving work on razorback Colorado—Southern Paiute Monitoring and sucker throughout the Colorado River Basin, and Education is now available on dvd. The video illustrates the resiliency of the fish and the ability A shares information on traditional uses and views of to adapt to changing conditions in the Colorado the Colorado River and Grand Canyon, as well as the River and Lake Mead. Although they cautioned Southern Paiute resource against reading too much into the captures this monitoring river trips. early into the study, they are optimistic that this Copies of the dvd may indicate an important relationship between have been given to each the lake and river for this rare species, particu- river company as well as larly as related to reproduction and ultimately the gcrg office for their recruitment. While many questions remain and interpretation libraries, are emerging, both Ron and Brandon felt that the so check it out! Copies lake and river may both be equally important in are also available from the providing habitat for this rare fish. Southern Paiute Consor- Fisheries biologists will continue to track the tium (SPC@kaibabpaiute- fish and collect more small fish during monthly nsn.gov, 928-643-6278), river trips through September 2014. Grand Can- and at local libraries. yon National Park Fisheries Program Manager Brian Healy said “Razorback suckers continue to surprise us in Grand Canyon, first with the dis- covery of adults after a twenty-plus-year absence, A Complete Life: The Autobiography of John Franklin and now by spawning within the Park. We’re Wright, by John Franklin Wright, Vishnu Temple all hoping to see evidence that these larval fish Press, 200 pages, isbn 978-0979505577, $16.95. survive to adulthood in the coming years. This work is an important component in the park’s rank Wright lived to be just short of one hun- comprehensive Fisheries Management Plan that dred years old, mostly in Blanding, Utah. He was developed to guide native fish conservation first ran Grand Canyon in 1948 as a boatman in Grand Canyon National Park.” So, next spring F for Norm Nevills whose business he took over after when you are rafting through the Grand Canyon, Norm’s death in 1949. Renamed Mexican Hat Expedi- remember that you might just be floating over tions, Frank and the Rigg brothers ran trips in Glen schools of spawning razorback sucker. Additional and Grand canyons before the dam. He was on the information about Grand Canyon National river trip that recovered Park’s fisheries program is available online at Ed Hudson’s Esmeralda http://www.nps.gov/grca/naturescience/fish.htm. II in 1950. He started the The project is a cooperative effort with the marina at Hall’s Crossing National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, after the dam. But Frank bio-west Inc., American Southwest Ichthyological was so much more than Researchers, llc, u.s. Fish and Wildlife Service, a river runner. He was a Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conserva- jack of all trades, mostly tion Program, Nevada Department of Wildlife, self-taught, as a miner, Arizona Game and Fish Department and the driver, meteorologist, Hualapai Tribe. piano teacher, machinist, barber and photographer. Emily Omana Smith, Brian Healy, Clay Nelson, This book, with family Brandon Albrecht, Ron Kegerries, Howard Bran- photos, is Frank’s story of denburg, Judith Barkstedt, Mark McKinstry, and his life, a complete life. Jim Stolberg

grand canyon river guides page 8 Kolb On A Rope

iver runners know the Kolb Brothers, photog- raphers Ellsworth and Emery, as the first to Rtake moving pictures on a river trip in 1911–1912 down the Green and Colorado rivers, from Green River, Wyoming, to Needles, California, below the Grand Can- yon. However, their most iconic picture is off the river and on the South Rim of Grand Canyon, the so-called “Kolb on a Rope,” with Ellsworth lowering Emery and a camera by ropes through a crevice. There are many variations of this photograph, which entail Ellsworth’s stance on logs spanning the crack and Emery’s twirling on the rope into slightly different positions. Ellsworth arrived at the Canyon in late 1901, Emery in early 1902. Their first photo studios had been built shortly after in a tent with a cave darkroom, and in a studio they acquired in Williams, near Ralph Cameron’s “Cameron Hotel” and “Bright Angel Toll Road.” Taking group photographs of the mule trains and riders on the Bright Angel provided a somewhat steady income, but the brothers were always looking for other photo, and money making, opportunities. One of those was the sale of photo albums, some with their black and white photographs and some that they had color-tinted. They copyrighted the albums as early as 1908, with photo- graphs copyrighted even earlier, at least by 1905; not all of their printed photos have copyright dates. The albums were for sale by 1910, containing a variety and different numbers of images. The 1910 album con- tained two images also found in the August 1914 issue of National Geographic, devoted almost entirely to the brothers, “Experiences in the Grand Canyon.” (See these Cover photo close up from Kolb Bros. photo album, © 1913, images from a 1913 album cover and Image 8.) The Na- author’s possession. tional Geographic issue appeared a few months before “The First Mile of the Bright Angel Trail: The Ellsworth’s classic book about their river trip, Through sheer wall covers the cherty limestone and the the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico (the 100th cross-bedded sandstone walls, 1,000 feet in anniversary of both is this summer and fall). Following thickness. The buildings on top, reading from are the captions for them from the article. the left, are El Tovar Hotel, the Bright Angel Hotel, and Kolb Brothers’ studio, a little below “How a Difficult Photograph Is Secured: This the top of the canyon wall. The photograph rather dangerous method was necessary to was difficult to secure, and was taken as de- take the photograph on page 129, showing one scribed on the opposite page.” mile of trail. Two ropes are used; one tied to a log, the other given one turn around the log. From the text, they state that they obtained the The operator sits in a loop in this second rope image of the Bright Angel Trail and the buildings on and is lowered to a ledge below, from which the rim, including their photo studio, from the log/ point the desired view may be secured. Then he climbs the rope which is tied, and the sec- rope point of view, with the intentional purpose of ond rope is pulled in as it becomes slack. Thus using that method to obtain the scenic view. It has the operator can rest when he becomes tired. been speculated by some, this author included, that The ledge in this case was 55 feet below. Had perhaps the brothers used the setup solely to cre- anything happened, the drop would have been ate an interesting image. Views with copyright dates about 300 feet.” can be found, that of Bright Angel as 1905 and Kolb/ boatman’s quarterly review page 9 since they are working, “it is unclear who is taking their picture. Are the brothers really working, or are they just posing?” (Sailor, 108). Sailor’s book is thought-provoking and highly recommended. During an October 2013 visit to the South Rim to lecture on John Wesley Powell and wa- ter in the west for the Grand Canyon Semester/ Prescott College course, I visited the Grand Canyon National Park Museum Collection, and quizzed Mike Quinn, the Park’s extremely well-informed Visual Information Specialist, about where the location of “Kolb on a Rope” might be. Mike told me to take the Rim Trail west from the Kolb Studio, along the Trail of Time past the Hermit Road shuttle bus stop and the worship site, to a crack that was easily found. It’s near the Trail of Time marker of 3230 Million Years Ago. I took a few photos, but did not drop down into the crevice, as I’m not as nimble as I once was, and never as nimble as the Kolb Brothers. At that time, I had my doubts as to the veracity of the loca- tion. I also doubted the view that the Kolbs said they obtained from that location, and walked uphill on the Trail of Time to the first viewpoint, Trailview Overlook; I guessed at Image 8 from Kolb Bros. photo album, © 1913, author’s possession. the Kolb image which I did not have with me, and took a photo, figuring that I was too low Rope as 1908, which might indicate that the view shot in elevation and the angle was wrong, needing had been taken three years before the brothers set up to hike further up the trail. In April 2014, I was doing the rope shots. Rachel McLean Sailor, in “Performing some arm-waving about Canyon/River historical ar- the Pioneer: The Kolbs, the Grand Canyon, Photo- chival research for Canyon Explorations/Expeditions, graphic Self-Representation, and Moving Pictures” a Grand Canyon Colorado River commercial outfitter, (in Meaningful Places: Landscape Photographers in the and took them to the alleged location. Some of their Nineteenth Century American West, University of New boatman dropped into the crack and took pictures, Mexico Press, 2014), postulated that when the brothers confirming Quinn’s knowledgeable site re-location. created “The View Hunters at Work in the Canyon,” On July 8, 2014, Bill Bishop and I attended the 1956 as they titled “Kolb on a Rope,” they did so “to pro- Mid-air Crash events, mote themselves and their work, capitalizing on the a plaque unveiling at hazardous-looking situation—one that was carefully Desert Watchtower and constructed to show their dedication and mettle as reception at Kolb Stu- ‘view hunters.’” “In the photographs, the brothers were dio. I had related to Bill essentially displaying themselves as a tourist attrac- my efforts regarding tion,” using these “self-promotional tendencies” and “Kolb on a Rope” and their “desire to create a narrative about their lives in he asked to see the loca- the canyon” (Sailor, 105, 108). They also would have tions and to accompany needed a third person to take the picture of them in me on further explora- the process of setting up to take a picture; possibilities Trail of Time marker. tion. After stopping at Photo by C. V. Abyssus. would include Ernest Kolb, their younger brother, and the crevice, we walked Blanche Kolb, Emery’s wife, both of whom assisted in up the Trail of Time to Trailview Overlook; Bill con- the business operation as needed. Sailor adds that “the firmed this was the wrong location. Continuing, we image is an odd conflation of subject and object”— stopped at an unnamed viewpoint between Trailview

page 10 grand canyon river guides “Kolb on a Rope” crevice from Trail of Time. “Kolb on a Rope” photo match by Justin Salamon. Photo by C. V. Abyssus. and Maricopa Point. We both agreed that the Kolbs took the photo in this area, probably lower down from where we were, on a rock outcrop a “Kolb scramble” below. We kept going to Maricopa Point, which was definitely not the place. I can safely conclude that the Kolbs did not obtain the rim view from the rope location, but used the two pictures and story as “a representation of their audacity” (Sailor, 108). Future research should reveal the location of another iconic Kolb Brothers image—“Leap for Life.”

C. V. Abyssus

Photo taken from between Trailview Overlook and Maricopa Point. Photo by C. V. Abyssus.

boatman’s quarterly review page 11 LTEMP Update

ou know the place. You care about it. You’ve got some thoughts on how it should be taken care Yof. It’s about time to make your voice heard. The ltemp eis will come out later this fall. It’s a major Environmental Impact Study that will set the course for how Glen Canyon Dam is operated and the Grand Canyon is taken care of for the next twenty years. A number of options will be proposed. One will be recommended. Then the world will be given about thirty days to weigh in with their comments. Some agencies, and a lot of individuals, are going to call for more power generation. Bigger daily fluctua- tions. Fewer beach-building high flows. Make more money. Knock some pennies off my monthly electric Beautiful post-HFE (High Flow Events)—North Canyon. bill. What are you going to ask for?

The eis isn’t out yet so we don’t have all the details, but we do know this: • The High Flow protocols should be adopted as a full-fledged part of the management plan, and we should make the most we can out of every oppor- tunity to have a beach building flood. • The new management plan should focus on doing the best we can for the river and the Grand Canyon itself. We should act as stewards of the place for future generations, not use it as a cash register. • The best available science should drive our deci- sions, and management should truly be adaptive to follow the science as it developes and our under- standing improves. Beautiful post-HFE (High Flow Events)—Grapevine. When the eis is made public later this year, we’ll post information and our analysis on the Grand Canyon River Guides website, along with our suggestions for comments. We’ll do our best to be part of the process, for the place we care so much about and for all the people who’s lives it will enrich in the future. We hope you’ll use your voice, too. Thank you much. Have a great time boating out there!

Sam Jansen

Beautiful post-HFE (High Flow Events)—GTS River trip checking out the sand piles in Marble Canyon Spring 2008.

page 12 grand canyon river guides Fall Rendezvous You Won’t Want to Miss— Page and Glen Canyon, Here We Come!

iver guides in Grand Canyon tend to be very Sounds amazing, right? We’ll send a postcard out to Grand Canyon-centric, understandably. This guides once we nail things down, but the event is open Ris your chance to break out of the mold and to everyone. If you’re interested in this not-to-be- spend a couple days exploring the world above Lees missed opportunity, you must rsvp! We have a size Ferry. restriction of 40 people for the dam tour. Once details are finalized,gcrg will post this event on the Fall When: October 11-12, 2014 Rendezvous page of our website, www.gcrg.org (look Where: Page, az and Glen Canyon under Guide Resources), so you can pay easily and What: Well, we’re still working on the “what” but securely. Hope to see you there! what we hope to include is: Lynn Hamilton • Take a tour of the innards of the dam that dictates the flows you boat on.

• Experience the serene beauty of Glen Canyon on a half day float trip with Colorado River Discovery, leaving and returning to the base of the dam.

• Dinner, music, and big party at Hoss Sanderson’s super fun Into the Grand event venue in Page. Hoss is a third generation river runner – his grandfather Rod Sanderson was the 125th per- son (in 1951) to travel down the Colorado River through Grand Canyon with Dock Marston. Sanderson River Expeditions was his family legacy. This great venue features a bar, an enormous mural of Grand Canyon (of course!), boat exhib- its, and lighted horseshoe pits – what a perfect place for a raucous river guide party! With a huge amount of indoor and outdoor space, you can throw your bedroll down anywhere – even on one of their many boats!

• Slide show by Gary Ladd on Into the Grand’s 10’ x 20’ outdoor movie screen about Glen Canyon Dam, including footage of the damage from the ’83 high water event.

• Let’s explore some of great hiking opportunities around Page the next day before heading back home.

boatman’s quarterly review page 13 page 14 grand canyon river guides

Black Eye Recovery © Margeaux Bestard Runout © Margeaux Bestard

boatman’s quarterly review page 15

Juvenile Chub Monitoring © Margeaux Bestard page 16 grand canyon river guides

Mohawk Canyon © Margeaux Bestard Pulse Flow Dig Out, Colorado River to Mexico © Margeaux Bestard boatman’s quarterly review page 17 Turning The Tables © Margeaux Bestard

page 18 grand canyon river guides

Bring It In Boys © Margeaux Bestard Swamping Grand Canyon

What’s with swamping the Canyon? We work for free not for miserly tips split four ways Two days rigging, one day derigging, and eight days For the bragging rights busting on the river from dawn to dusk Chasing the dream of piloting our own boat Cooking for 32 breakfast, lunch, and dinner Joining the camaraderie and legacy of river guides, Scrubbing pots, setting up and tearing down our camp explorers kitchen on two beaches a day, remembering the and others who lead expeditions hand wash We swamp for the sacred duty of showing others the Keeping all safe awe and wonder of wilderness Tying and untying the boat a half dozen times a day Where mind and dreams wander unfettered by the Securing the bowline and stocking pop bags stresses and complexities we call life Sweeping two dozen folks on a couple hikes a day Elsewhere Cleaning all 16 tents, throwing in the laundry 28 bags, Here life is beauty, wild water, and the joy of living on pads, and tarps that edge Putting away all gear and provision for the next And of simple grace that nurtures expedition Where so much becomes ours to give as freely as it is Traveling over 800 miles to get here and just as many given to us to get back Where the reason we take our children camping Two weeks away from work, family and friends becomes the soul of work To really work The harder we swamp the harder we feed this soul The more we give the more we see to give For what? As freely and deeply as the canyon Viewing Anasazi ruins from a granary above once fertile floodplains — Dr. David Stube Sliding down the otter run in turquoise Little Colorado Doc Stube was a work-your-way for arr in 2007 and in 2014 Echoing laughter and fun in curving Blacktail swamped for his daughter Ani Eastwood of gce. When he Hoping for a glimpse of fat chuckawalla at Stone is missing the Canyon he is a child and family counselor in Missoula, Montana. Shimmying down the close water-carved canyon in Matkat Jumping up from our butt damn to release a cool captured stream, squealing as it roars down and away Panicking little in emergency steady as my pilot in white water Teetering across the ledge in Deer Creek to discover the sacred space where all was created Bathing in falls tumbling out of rock and sky Belly flopping milky Havasu Drenching in a monsoon flash transforming this desert canyon into a verdant garden of rim falls in the mist Guiding children chasing geckos and horny toad lizards Cutting them marshmellow sticks Drinking in what stories red and green pictographs tell And the long and tall tales boaters strap on Rafting 277 miles through one of the seven wonders

boatman’s quarterly review page 19 “Groover” Blues

“Pride cometh before the fall” or so they say, I am a man of the truth, the reverse being sin, And the infamous “Groover” proved my undoing this It was just about then real terror set in. way. For my work almost done I was planning to stroll, I found myself rafting on a river one June, So I glanced ‘round my throne for that all-crucial Roll. Down the Grand Canyon before the monsoon. It sat near in a case sealed tight as a jail, My real tale begins with an act proud and bold, I then looked at my hands, my face turning pale. Grabbing line on a raft without being told. I leaned over to grab it but could not get a grip, Rope whipped through my hands before I locked in, The case rolled towards the water; I started to slip. Left me wishing for gloves; heck wishing for skin! Losing my perch, pants wrapped ‘round my feet, Soon rafters swam by in search of their craft, I tumble downhill landing square on my seat. It was upright and dry, clean fore and aft. I then pulled with my heels to catch that rogue case, I accepted their thanks with a tear in my eye, It rolled away fast with me close on the chase. Those rope burns from Hell would make any man cry. When my feet touched the river, what did I find? No tears of joy, only misguided Pride and My odd little journey left brown slick behind. Hands that now felt like fresh branded hide. Appalled at the sight I jumped to my feet, Being helpful to folks should feel good, even fun, Slipped in the mud, then face down in the peat. So why hands like raw burgers in want of a bun? Grit splashed in my eyes such that all now was dark, I slinked back to camp in need of attention, But with face in the dirt my nose found its mark. Where a shapely young Guide, too sweet not to men- That streak in the trail was now beacon of sorts, tion, Like Hansel and Gretel only with soiled shorts. Then gauzed up my hands so I could finish the trip, Each mummified hand now a giant Q-Tip. So I crawled up the hill like an eager blood hound, White buttocks in air, nose pressed to the ground. While I loved all the sympathy my bandages drew, I sniffed every inch to the edge of that Groover, When nature then called my anxiety grew. Then hugged both sides hard for a tricky maneuver. That common endeavor known across all the lands, Simply cannot be done with cotton-balled hands. I pulled that can towards me to help me to stand, But as it slid forward it caught in the sand. The Guide sensed my panic, my palpable fear It would seem that Fate had the Devil befriended, And knew without help I might do the deed here! For that infernal can did not tilt, it upended! She tried to explain how I could manage alone, But realized at last I was scared to the bone. I felt the round seat then collar my head, While fear of “What Next” filled me with dread. She led me to “Groover,” ammo can with a seat, There is no earthly reason to belabor my woes, Where all Rafters squat, eyes fixed on their feet, As the ending involved soap, brushes and hose. To recycle granola in deep “Eco-thought, ” With high self-importance that can’t be store bought. Yes, falling headfirst into that can was pure hell, But it was made much much worse getting caught in She undid my belt, my hands pinned to my side, mid yell. Then removed the can lid to hasten my ride. Off down the trail she left with a smirk, — Michael F. Bigham, 2014 I then dropped my pants and got down to work.

The task now seemed simple; I had a clear mission, Pants at my ankles I assumed the position. Even now I recall my great sense of relief, Returning “organics” that dee-fied belief.

page 20 grand canyon river guides boatman’s quarterly review page 21

Duck For Dinner Learn To Dress © Margeaux Bestard Save the Confluence Campaign Update: June–July, 20141

ave the Confluence2 is a group of local families tion opposing the proposed Escalade Project because from the Bodaway/Gap Chapter of the Navajo any development of this sacred area would violate SNation who are opposing plans to build a large religious teachings of Hopi people. Navajo Council destination resort on the remote East Rim of Grand delegate Leonard Tsosie led a successful vote against Canyon and a gondola ride down to the confluence accepting the Chairman’s report because it was not on of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers.3 In 2012, the agenda. Grand Canyon Trust accepted their invitation4 to join Nonetheless, the Committee voted to accept Save the campaign to oppose Grand Canyon Escalade.5 This the Confluence’s report, which concluded with a plea update summarizes some of the significant events dur- “…to put a stop to this nonsense. We ask you to save ing the summer of 2014.6 the confluence and the people who have been trying to make a home since exiled. Bring all stakeholders Developers Push for Final Approval together…the children and grandchildren. We have According to Scottsdale developer R. Lamar Whitmer, suffered enough. We want justice, protection for sacred the idea for building a gondola into Grand Canyon sites. Thank you.” 11 began in 2009. Elements of the proposal were eventu- On June 25, developers published a full-page ad in ally shaped into a Memorandum of Understanding,7 the Navajo-Hopi Observer.12 It attacked Save the Con- signed by Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly and fluence families for protesting and putting up signs, development partner Albert Hale on February 21, 2012. instead of “working together” to “create jobs” and “a Negotiations among invited insiders followed. More better future for the people of Western Navajo.” The ad than two years later, developers planned to push for also asked readers to call upon “your Council Delegate final approval by the Navajo Nation Council during its to move to approve Grand Canyon Escalade.” It prom- 2014 summer session. ised 3,500 jobs but offered no details about negotiated On June 10, 2014, Escalade developers posted the agreements with President Shelly’s office. following statement on their website: Two days later, Escalade developers appeared before A final package of legislation was delivered to the June 27th meeting of Navajo Council’s Naabik’iyati the Navajo Nation Council Office of Legisla- Committee. Mike Lee (architect), Albert Hale (legal tive Affairs. From there it has moved on to the advisor), Keith A. Lamparter (design and construction Speakers Office, is being assigned a legislation manager), and R. Lamar Whitmer (managing partner) number and is being assigned to committees reported that they had completed negotiations with for review, debate and hopefully approval…8 the Navajo Nation and were ready for legislation to be presented for Council approval. This pronouncement9 and well-financed publicity Save the Confluence families, Hopi cultural pres- campaign led many to believe that it was a “done deal.” ervation director Leigh Kuwanwisiwma, and former Reporter Katherine Locke wrote: “R. Lamar Whitmer, Hopi Chairman Vernon Masayesva were among managing partner of Confluence Partners, said over the Escalade opponents in the audience. Council delegates last year and a half he believes opposition to the project Dwight Witherspoon, Mel Begay, and Jonathan Nez from Navajos has lessened…‘Our documents are in the asked difficult questions of the presenters, includ- legislative process with the Nation and we’re hopeful to ing “what are the details of the agreement…and how have the Council act on it in June or July.’” 10 But that much of the revenues go back to the communities?” optimism faded by mid-July. Even sympathetic delegate Leonard Tsosie complained The Navajo Council’s Naabik’iyati Committee about the lack of transparency: “Every day that you heard a report from Save the Confluence representa- do not give us the agreement, then you are losing my tives on June 13. Delores Wilson-Aguirre, Pauline vote…I don’t want to continue the agitation at Bod- Martin Sanchez, and other family members presented away…Give us a proposal in 30 days.” 13 their case against Escalade and received a generally Renae Yellowhorse attended the presentation. She positive reception. But Hopi Tribal Chairman Her- was shocked: “There was no substance. There was no man Honanie stirred controversy when the Speaker information. There was nothing they could go on.”14 Pro Temp invited him to speak for two minutes. He Instead, Confluence Partner Albert Hale listed the reported that the Hopi Council had passed a resolu- social ills of Bodaway/Gap Chapter and how Escalade

page 22 grand canyon river guides jobs would solve those problems. As an example of Southern California Public Radio interviewed the kind of interpretive center they were planning, de- Deswood Tome, who spoke in support of the Escalade velopers showed a film about the Polynesian Cultural development. As Special Adviser to President Shelly, Center in Hawaii, on which Confluence Partner Mike Tome challenged the National Park Service’s opposi- Lee had worked.15 tion: “Don’t tell the Navajo Nation what we can do and Furthermore, Yellowhorse said no one in Bodaway/ what we can’t do. You stick over there on your side, Gap Chapter, where Escalade would be located, knew and we’ll do what we want to do on our side.”18 Others about the negotiations. “Doj was there, nuta was there, interviewed included Kevin Dahl, from National Parks all these entities,” she said. “The closest stakehold- Conservation Association, Renae Yellowhorse, and ers were not invited. Our chapter president was not Grand Canyon Trust’s Deon Ben, who called in to the even aware there were negotiations going on.” As for live broadcast. Escalade developers, “It’s time for them to share the During a cbs Morning News report the following information,” she said. “It’s time for them to be trans- Monday, Superintendent Uberuaga said: “I am the parent. It’s time for them to come back to Bodaway/ steward of this national park. It is my responsibil- Gap Chapter and heal the rift they’ve caused in the ity to preserve and protect Grand Canyon for future community.”16 generations.” Lamar Whitmer dismissed opponents to the proposed gondola as “elitist” for wanting to Momentum Shifts limit access to only a “select few.” The television news For more than two years, Save the Confluence families report concluded with Save the Confluence spokesper- actively solicited opposition to Escalade from Na- son Renae Yellowhorse asking: “Is there any amount vajo Nation citizens, Council delegates, and political of money that people would take to sell their sacred candidates running for office. They used Facebook and places? No, it’s priceless.”19 other social media to spread the word about Escalade’s The week prior to the July 21st opening of the threats to culture, community, and environment. But Navajo Council’s summer session began with Save the until the presentation by developers to the Naabik’iyati Confluence family members Wilson O. Wilson, Darlene Committee, momentum seemed to be flowing in Martin, Delores Wilson-Aguirre, and others speaking Escalade’s favor. in a two-hour broadcast over ktnn , the most widely Tough questions from delegates during the June listened to radio station on the Navajo Reservation. 27th presentation revealed that negotiators had not Deon Ben moderated the radio program, which was disclosed terms of the proposed agreement to the mainly in the Navajo language. They shared personal Navajo Nation Council. Residents, grazing lease hold- experiences about stress and turmoil caused by the ers, chapter officials, religious leaders, and key agencies divisive proposal. such as Navajo Parks and Recreation and Historical The radio broadcast included respected elder Mary Preservation Office were left out of the process. As Martin’s voice scolding Whitmer’s band of bilagáana Navajo citizens alerted to the fact that decisions were developers and shaming Navajo enablers for selling being made without their consent, u.s. citizens learned out their communities and culture. Listeners were that developers were planning to build an amusement urged to call their Council delegates to oppose Es- ride into one of our nation’s most treasured national calade. Feedback to the program flooded in: phone parks. calls, personal thanks, and praise in cyberspace rippled Over the Fourth of July weekend, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Julie Cart’s front-page article17 in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times spawned a series of high- profile stories in national and international media. Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Dave Uberuaga cited Escalade and the proposed Tusayan development as the most “serious threats” the park has faced in its 95-year history. Lamar Whitmer countered that the park service offers visitors nothing more than “a drive-by wilderness experience…We want them to feel the canyon from the bottom.” Presumably, riding a gondola down to a riverside walkway and snack bar offers a more meaningful way to experience the Grand Canyon. Deon Ben and Mary Martin at KTNN studio.

boatman’s quarterly review page 23 “The closest stakeholders were not invited.”Renae Yellowhorse, speaking against private negotiations to approve Escalade.

Hopi Tribal Chairman Herman Honanie speaks on July 18 to Save the Confluence coalition members about the Dotted lines show area of proposed rim development and gondola route to riverside restaurant. Photo: National Park Service Hopi Tribe’s cultural, religious and sacred site concerns about the proposed Escalade development. Photo by Rosanda Suetopka.

“Generations of teachings and way of life are at stake.’ The Nockideneh and Saganitso families oppose Escalade. Photo by Melody Nez Sylvia Nockideneh-Tee. Photo by Melody Nez.

page 24 grand canyon river guides Full-page ad published by Save the Confluence in the Navajo Times on July 17.

Dotted lines show area of proposed rim development and gondola route to riverside restaurant. Photo: National Park Service

Save the Confluence coalition members prepare banner prior to June 13 meeting with the Naabik’ayati Committee. “Sacred Sites Not For Sale,” Photo mural of Delores Wilson-Aguirre at Gray Mountain by Chip Thomas.

boatman’s quarterly review page 25 across the reservation. It was strong, emotional, and far Shelly has not even responded in any way to our overwhelmingly against Escalade. invitation or even to our formal opposition letters 25 Following the ktnn program, Save the Confluence regarding the project sent to his office.” The invitation families published two full-page ads, one in the Na- was also extended to Albert Hale and Lamar Whitmer. vajo-Hopi Observer and another in the Navajo Times. The summer session of the Navajo Nation began Among the questions the ad asked was: “Where is the the following Monday, July 21st. As is customary on final package of legislation that Confluence Partners opening day, Council delegates introduced members said they delivered to the Navajo Nation Council Of- of the audience.26 Delegate and a leading presidential fice of Legislative Affairs on June 10, 2014?” It recalled contender Russell Begaye warmly welcomed Mary that Escalade’s memorandum with Ben Shelly said if Martin and Save the Confluence members by name, the Master Agreement is not executed “by July 1, 2013,” followed by a burst of applause from the audience. then the relationship with the Nation “shall terminate Escalade developers Albert Hale and Lamar Whitmer without further action.”20 were noticeably absent, as additional Council mem- Reporter Cindy Yurth’s front page story in the bers acknowledged Earlene Reid, Renae Yellowhorse, Thursday, July 17th edition of Navajo Times began: and other opposition family members in attendance. “Contrary to information on the developers’ website, a bill committing the Navajo Nation to partner on a Looking Ahead resort on the rim of the Little Colorado Canyon has As of this update, Escalade developers’ most recent not reached the speaker’s office and will not be on the public statement was printed in full-page ad in the July Navajo Nation Council’s summer session agenda.”21 24th Navajo Times.27 It said: On the back page of the same section of the paper Over the last 4½ years we have invested more was the Save the Confluence families’ full-page ad. Its than $3½ million of time and money to get headline read, “Why are profiteers still pushing Grand the Grand Canyon Escalade resolution and Canyon Escalade?” It also asked, “Where is the solid agreements ready for a Navajo Nation Coun- public support President Shelly said he needed before cil vote…[In 2012, President Shelly] signed a December 31, 2012?” nonexclusive mou to negotiate for the building and running of Escalade. Over the next 2 years That same day, soon after Yurth’s story broke, an the project design was refined, and the Mas- Indian Country Today headline appeared: “Contro- ter Agreement, along with the Development versial Grand Canyon Gondola Grounded for a Year.” and Operating Agreements were hammered Lamar Whitmer said “Because we haven’t been able to out. The land use revenue to the Nation will get to the Council in a timely fashion, the opening will start at 8% of gross revenues and then go up be pushed back until May 2018.” 22 The previous open- to 18% as visitor attendance increases (this is ing date was the summer of 2017. Whitmer added, “It’s more than 3 times what the operator pays at disappointing, having gotten to know the people in Grand Canyon National Park). The Nation will also receive a significant amount of sales and the area and the need that exists in western Navajo for hotel taxes from the project…We had hoped jobs and economic opportunity.” the Council would have voted before the end Not buying Whitmer’s sympathy, Renae Yellow- of July so that Escalade could have opened in horse criticized the developer’s concept for an inter- May 2017, but because of delays the best we can pretive center: “If that’s the kind of Disneyland-like expect is May 2018. Hopefully the Council will thing he wants to bring to the edge of the Grand act soon and not risk another year of payroll Canyon, no. That’s not how we want our stories told. for all those living in the Bennett Freeze. We’re here. We’re not a story from the 1800s. We’re not Pocahontas on the Rim. It was offensive.”23 The advertisement repeats well-worn talking points On July 18th, the day after Escalade developers and provides few new details about negotiated agree- announced a delay in plans, Hopi, Zuni, and Navajo ments. It chastises the Council for delays, while seek- leaders traveled to the Confluence area.24 Hopi Tribal ing its approval. It asks citizens to embrace Escalade Chairman Herman Honanie said to the Escalade oppo- on face value and urges immediate approval to keep sition group that he wanted to clarify where the Hopi the project on schedule. Tribe stands on the project: “With the Hopi Council’s We don’t know exactly why Escalade developers backing, I and Vice Chairman Alfred Lomaquahu have have failed (thus far) to tee up a resolution before the invited both Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly and Navajo Nation Council. Some delegates are concerned their council members to sit down with us at our Hopi about massive subsidies that developers are demand- headquarters to discuss this Confluence project…So ing to pay for water, roads, electricity, and other essen-

page 26 grand canyon river guides tials. With August primaries and the general election 8. http://grandcanyonescalade.com/update-on-escalade-and-why- slated for November, President Shelly may now view we-have-been-silent-for-over-a-year/ Escalade as a liability to his re-election. Resistance 9. Contrary to Escalade developers’ statement, the legislation and negotiated agreements had not been released for public review within permitting agencies and potential threats of as of 8/11/14. No delegate has stepped forward to sponsor a lawsuits could also be factors. In any case, the Save the supporting resolution or legislation before the Navajo Nation Council. The bill was not assigned a number. Committees have Confluence campaign appears to be having an effect. not reviewed it, nor was it placed in the agenda for the summer Will Escalade developers overpower local op- session (July 21–25). position, traditional uses, and emerging efforts for 10. http://www.grandcanyonnews.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&Sub community-driven economic development? Can the SectionID=1&ArticleID=10888 canyon (and our planet) survive self-proclaimed sav- 11. http://www.dineresourcesandinfocenter.org/where-are-the- iors whose promises of prosperity are mere alibis for navajo-elders-why-arent-they-protesting/ short-term profits? And when they go away, who will 12. http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/documents/gc_Escalade_ be next? NHO_Ad_7_25_14.pdf There will always be people who are eager to 13. Please see: http://www.dineresourcesandinfocenter.org/ sell the lie that providing universal access to youtube-video-navajo-council-hears-proposed-grand- fragile terrain where beauty and solitude still canyon-escalade-project-report-june-27-2014-part-1/; http:// www.dineresourcesandinfocenter.org/youtube-video-naabi- flourish does nothing to diminish the qualities kiyati-committee-hears-proposed-grand-canyon-escalade- that make those places so special.28 project-report-6-27-14-part-2/; http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Aw1rFsI6WMo

14. http://navajotimes.com/news/2014/0714/071714 confluence. Our story is never over. Thanks to grandmothers and php#.U-StlmB0zCJ grass-root activists who are making a difference. Thanks 15. The Polynesian Cultural Center was opened by the the Church to river runners, canyon lovers, and advocates every- of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on October 12, 1963, and where. Please keep supporting savetheconfluence.com. occupies 42 acres owned by nearby Brigham Young University. Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesian_Cultural_ Center —Save the Confluence and Native America Program, Grand Canyon Trust 16. http://navajotimes.com/news/2014/0714/071714confluence. php#.U-StlmB0zCJ

Footnotes: 17. http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-grand-canyon- 1. To access a copy of this update, please see: http://www.grandcan- 20140706-story.html#page=1 yontrust.org/documents/gc_STC_Update._June_July2014.pdf 18. http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2014/07/11/38323/how- 2. http://savetheconfluence.com/ about-a-gondola-ride-down-to-the-floor-of-the/ 3. For more information, please see: http://www.grandcanyontrust. 19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d4Wsn-pNj8 org/news/2012/06/proposed-development-to-transport-visitors- from-rim-of-grand-canyon-to-the-canyon-floor/; http://www. 20. http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/documents/gc_STC_Navajo_ grandcanyontrust.org/news/2012/11/bodawaygap-families- Times_Ad.pdf continue-battle-against-escalade-project/; http://www.grand- canyontrust.org/news/2012/12/will-navajos-approve-a-grand- 21. http://navajotimes.com/news/2014/0714/071714confluence. canyon-megadevelopment/; http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/ php#.U-S3H2B0zCJ news/2012/08/grand-canyon-escalade-project-presses-forward/; http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/news/2013/10/the-escalade- 22. http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/07/17/ project-and-gct-front-page-news/; http://www.grandcanyon- controversial-grand-canyon-gondola-grounded-year-155911 trust.org/news/2013/02/save-the-confluence-continues-opposi- tion-to-the-escalade-project-in-2013/ 23. http://navajotimes.com/news/2014/0714/071714confluence. php#.U-S3H2B0zCJ 4. http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/news/2012/10/grand-canyon- trust-to-support-protect-the-confluence-coalition-efforts/ 24. To hear Laurel Morales’ report on npr’s Morning Edition, please visit: http://www.npr.org/2014/08/04/337144825/proposed-gon- 5. http://grandcanyonescalade.com/ dola-for-grand-canyons-rim-has-community-on-edge 6. While working in support of the Confluence families to stop the 25. http://nhonews.com/Main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1& project, our team is also collaborating with community groups ArticleID=16314 to help craft alternative economic development strategies that would bring much-needed jobs to this area of the Navajo Na- 26. http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/50346329; http://www.ustream. tion without threatening national park resources, sacred sites, tv/channel/navajo-nation-council or traditional culture. This community-based effort is a public process that continues as Escalade developers pursue private 27. http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/documents/gc_Escalade_ agreements between powerful allies who stand to profit from the NT_Ad_7_24_14.pdf proposed project. Please see: http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/ news/2014/05/save-confluence-coalition-hopes-halt-escalade- 28. Editors cut this sentence from Kevin Fedarko’s August 10, 2014, development-project/ editorial in the New York Times. Please see http://www.nytimes. com/2014/08/10/opinion/sunday/two-development-projects- 7. http://savetheconfluence.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ threaten-the-grand-canyon.html?smid=tw-share MOU_Between_NN-_Confluence_Partners-.pdf boatman’s quarterly review page 27 Brian Hansen

want to show you this picture before we go any When I started college in 1980, my parents didn’t further. This is my great-grandfather and his pay for any of it, so it was all up to me. After the first I younger brother. Those guys were born here in year I had gone through the scholarship I’d received Arizona, but orphaned very early, and went into the from doing well at New Mexico Military, and I knew I cattle business because that’s what was there for them. had to have a job. I went to the job placement service They both had ranches around the Willcox area. That’s at the University of Arizona. There was an opening as where I grew up. The reason I worked for Arizona a camp counselor in Minnesota. So I applied for that River Runners was because Fred [Burke] knew people and got it, but it wasn’t going to make a whole lot of that lived in Willcox, and he was also kind of in the money. And I was basically desperate. It was getting cattle business himself. So when I applied to Arizona towards May, and I needed to find a job that was going River Runners, Fred knew two things: he knew people to pay a little bit of money. In the back of the school that lived in Willcox, and he also knew the high school newspaper was an ad that said—you know, in the days I went to—New Mexico Military Institute—and he before computers—“If you send us six bucks, we’ll was aware of that because he was a military man give you the address list and phone numbers of all of himself. these outdoor companies…” that do river running, mountain climbing, biking. I knew nothing about river running whatsoever. I wrote to as many of them as I could afford—I think I spent like $20 on stamps, and got half a dozen replies. Basically all of them said, “We can’t give you a job this way, you’re going to have to show up. We’ve got to look you over, and maybe you’ll get a job, maybe you won’t.” That wasn’t the financial position I was in—I needed to have a job confirmed before I even went somewhere. So there’s no way I was go- ing to spend the money on a bus ticket, show up, and then have them tell me I wasn’t going to have a job. I needed to have a confirmed job. Fred [Burke] was the only one. He called me on the phone in the dormitory. There’s a little pay phone that was in the hall. Someone said, “Brian, you’ve got a phone call.” And that was the first time I ever spoke to Fred. So he told me I had a job if I showed up. What I needed to do was show up at Bitter Springs, and then we would go from there. Steiger: And that was because that’s where you could get off the bus there? Hansen: Right, the old burned-out gaso- line station that used to be there. Yeah, that’s where the bus stop was. So I worked it out to where I took my last final exam, I had a suitcase and a guitar and twenty dollars in my pocket; that was all the money I had in the world; and I got on the bus and got off at Bit- ter Springs, and was standing out there in the sun going, “What am I doing here?!” Steiger: You’d never run a river or any- The early Arizona Hansens. thing like that?

page 28 grand canyon river guides Hansen: I didn’t know what a boat looked like. So Hansen: They were. Yeah, they were. I think that Pam [Manning] came and picked me up. As it turned was Ed’s seventh trip in the Grand Canyon, and then out, I can’t remember exactly how things got fouled Dennis was—I think that was right around his 50th. up, but I was supposed to show up a day earlier than I So he was the old guy. But as luck would have it, the did. She had come out the previous day, and I wasn’t water wasn’t very high that trip. I don’t know if they on the bus. So they didn’t know if I was ever going to were not expecting it, or if they didn’t scout when show up at all. But she had the foresight to come out they should have, or what, but I didn’t really know the next day and look around. Lo and behold, there I where I was on the river anyway, so it didn’t register was. And I was very happy that she picked me up. So to me. The fluctuation of the water, as great as it was she picks me up, we go to Vermilion Cliffs, and that’s back then, I just thought it was normal. You know, the first time I saw a boat. I think Ed Smith was out the water was fluctuating, especially in the gorge, there working on a thirty-three that was unrolled on up to twelve, fifteen feet. And so you wake up in the the ground, and that was the first time I’d ever seen morning, and the boats are halfway high and dry and a piece of rubber. I said, “Man, that is a big boat!” Of you’ve gotta push ’em in the water and get ready to go. course they looked at me like, “Boy, you are green.” Well, when it came to running Crystal, the water had As it turned out, that first trip was quite a chal- dropped out. We were running it in the morning. And lenge. People ask you, “What’s the worst trip you’ve this was before ’83, so this was… I didn’t get to see it ever had in your life?” And I think that’s probably the that many times, but I remember the very big hole on one, the very first trip, because I knew nothing, abso- the left-hand side. That changed in the ’83 flood. But lutely nothing. I left on the very next day. It was Den- then it seemed to me like it was just a strainer of rocks nis Mitchem, Ed Smith, and myself… I mean, literally from the beginning to the end. There wasn’t a clear- in three days I went from knowing nothing about the cut passage. It was trying to figure out not so much river business and taking my last final exam in college which rocks you weren’t going to hit, but which ones my freshman year, and then launching on the river you were gonna hit, because you knew you were going with absolutely no idea… I didn’t know how to tie a to, and you knew you were going to get stuck. knot, for crying out loud! I didn’t know anything at all Steiger: So you guys got stuck? about how the boats were put together, where things Hansen: Both of us did. I was on Ed’s boat, and were stored. The fact that it was a people business… I somehow we managed to make it through. We got didn’t know how to act towards the people. I’d grown stuck twice. I had to get out and push the boat off. up in the outside all my life, I liked camping and that And I remember clearly the epiphany I had. I pushed sort of thing, but certainly never had been on a jour- the boat off the first time, and then I fell in the water, ney like that ever before. So in the space of three days, so I had to swim to the boat, pull myself back on, and I was thrust into the fire, literally. You remember that then we got stuck again. It was a good-sized rock, be- in those days the intimidation factor for new people cause I could get out and stand on it while I was push- was definitely there. There was a hazing system that ing the boat off. It was then I had my little epiphany existed for people. of, “Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into?!” Steiger: Was there really? Steiger: “I just want to put myself through college!” Hansen: Absolutely there was. (laughter) Steiger: See, I didn’t have that. Those assholes, if Hansen: I’m dripping wet, and it was dangerous. they did that to you… For me, it was Ross Garrison, I almost got caught in between the boat and the rock Tom Moody, Pete Reznick. Those guys were great! while I was swimming, and pulled myself back on. It Hansen: They accepted you into the fold right away? was pushing myself off the second time that it kind of Steiger: Absolutely. I would have never made it struck me. Three days ago—or maybe it was four at without those guys, but they babied me along. that time—I was in college, knew nothing about this, Hansen: Well, you were lucky then. For me it wasn’t and now I’m in the middle of Grand Canyon, pushing like that. That first trip was most certainly—it was a boat off in this freezing cold water. horrible! Steiger: A guy could get hurt out here! Steiger: Knowing Dennis and Ed like I do—I love Hansen: And I didn’t know what I was doing. I just both those guys—but I could see where they each felt like I was overwhelmed and I’m in over my head. could get a little cranky in their own individual ways. Dennis got stuck too, and he put a rip in his boat Hansen: It was tough all the way around. maybe six feet long. So that didn’t make their moods Steiger: Were they even getting along with each any more pleasant, let’s say. So that night they were other? grumpy, pissed off… Uh-huh, we had to de-rig and boatman’s quarterly review page 29 patch it. You still gotta cook dinner. And I remember it you could be by yourself and you could look around. I being late because it was twilight by the time all of that grew up in Arizona, and I had never been to the Grand was getting around. And then they want help—there’s Canyon. This was my first Grand Canyon experience. only three of you. We didn’t have a fourth person. So First time I ever saw the canyon at all was when they’re expecting the third person to kick it into gear. Pammy drove me across the Navajo Bridge. That was Steiger: But you’ve been doing this three days the first time I’d ever looked down. And so despite all now… of this other negative stuff that was going on, at night Hansen: Yeah, three or four days. But, you know, I would look up and I’d look around, and the feeling how to set up the kitchen, how to cook this dinner, I got from it was pretty inspiring. I think that’s true how do you help sew this boat up, how do you do any for so many of our people that we take down the river. of that stuff? I was just overwhelmed by it. Needless to It’s a very unique place. And after you’ve done some say, at the end of that trip, they said I was never gonna traveling and you mature a little bit, and you see some work out. They told Fred. “You might as well forget it other places, and see some other things, you realize it’s and just send him on his way.” So Fred sat me down even more so, there’s something soul stirring about a at that little table in the back where we used to eat and Grand Canyon experience. And once that settles in, told me it wasn’t going to work out and I was going to there’s no getting rid of it, you’re not going to forget it, have to go home. What Fred didn’t realize was—I had ever. I certainly haven’t. That first trip was 35 years ago, nowhere to go. I couldn’t go back home. I didn’t have and I still feel that way. Despite some of the negative any money. I told him right there, “If you tell me to aspects of our business, the things that can be trying, leave, this is literally what’s going to happen. I’m going and the things that can get to you—just like any other to pack my bags, I’m going to walk across the street, job or any other place—if that feeling is real, it’s not and I’m going to put my thumb out, and I’m going ever going to be diminished. And I can say that with to go in the direction of the first person that picks me all sincerity. up. Because I don’t know where I’m going, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do.” I don’t know why, but Fred * * * had pity. He said, “Okay, we’ll give you a job, but it’s not going to be permanent. So this first year here, I’ll Brian Hansen started with Arizona River Runners in give you whatever trips possibly come up, but you’re 1981. He was 18 years old and the company had six motor going to be the chore boy around Vermilion Cliffs.” rigs: two two-boat nylon trip sets that were pretty good; So that’s what I was. I was basically doing everything a fifth cotton boat which wasn’t “that” bad; and a sixth around that place: fixing coolers, fixing the water line. cotton boat that was, well, plausible. Today arr/gcw I even picked the fruit off Fred’s trees sometimes in his is, by far, the biggest company down there. Brian—a back yard. But any little job that was available. I mean, husband, a father, and a nurse, still runs a trip a year for I cooked in the kitchen… I was an everything guy. them. For more than a decade, Brian was the Project Co- I flipped eggs for Fred. I drove the truck a couple of ordinator for the Grand Canyon Conservation Program, times and picked people up at Pearce Ferry. wherein commercial outfitters and boatmen have teamed Steiger: I remember you being this big stout—I up with the nps to lend a hand with the heavy-lifting of mean, you were always really strong. I remember that. physically maintaining the park. Hansen: Yeah, I tell my wife that, and I try to This Adopt-a-Boatman interview, though funded convince her I used to be big and strong at one time. long ago, was conducted in March of this year. (chuckles) Steiger: You were the strongest one of any of us, as * * * I recall. Pam called you Bam-Bam. Hansen: Yeah, she did. I think Carol said about me It’s true that characters existed around Vermilion in those days, “He’s the perfect worker. The trouble is, Cliffs, and the list is long. Fred was one of those char- we have to feed him.” (laughter) acters, for sure. One of the very first times I met my Steiger: Now, I’m almost hearing you say that if new boss, I remember him right next to the old office you had another place to go, you would have: “Okay, there in the trees that were growing just outside, and seemed like a good idea at the time, but I’m outta it was one of the very first—well, it wasn’t a cellular here.” phone, but it was a transportable phone. You could Hansen: No, that’s not true, because despite the actually talk without being connected with a wire. severity of the interaction with the people during the And he had one of those in one hand, and a drink day, there were times at night when it was quiet and in the other hand, and he was wearing a cowboy hat,

page 30 grand canyon river guides Circa 1982. no shirt… I think it was Bermuda shorts, and a pair then. I remember Fred was always concerned about of cowboy boots. And that image is just so humor- money, he was always trying to make sure he didn’t ous, and yet so perfect for Fred and who he was. But spend too much here, too much there, but he was al- Fred, as you mentioned before, was a military man. So ways Dad, it was a family. I remember that very clearly. despite the fact that he could do that—he could look All the girls that worked in the office and in the restau- ridiculous, if that’s the word you want to use for it, rant… Connie [Tibbitts] was one of the first female he could look that funny, and that ridiculous, on the river runners and she was there. That was really cool. other hand he was a very strict—not a disciplinarian, I think all of us really respected that—here’s Connie, but he ran things the way he wanted to run ’em, and following in the footsteps of Georgie [White] kind of he made sure everybody understood this is the way it’s thing. But then she was so unique to herself as well. I going to be. And I appreciated that, coming from the mean, what other women that you knew of could take small military background I had grown up in, in high a motor apart and put it back together blindfolded? school, I appreciated being led by someone that was in And here she was running motorboats down the control. And I knew he always was. You know, hav- Grand Canyon. She was part of the whole business. ing to run a river business is a tricky thing, especially And Stuart [Reeder] was there. We can list all the river for those people that did it way back then, like you runners that worked for Arizona River Runners at that said, on a prayer, right? You invested your money, and time. But it was a family. hoped you’d get a return on it. But you didn’t always know if that was going to happen. On top of that, you * * * weren’t sure if the park service was going to change the rules on you at any time. So it was a hit-or-miss kind There was a need for a swamper at Hatch, so Fred said, of thing. And I can only imagine the pressure that was “They need a swamper, you want to go?” I said, “Hell, put on some of these people who were starting back yeah!” So I went and did that trip for them. They were boatman’s quarterly review page 31 impressed enough with me that they said, “You don’t in the season, I thought. have to work for Arizona River Runners, come work Hansen: Well that’s true, but don’t forget that Fred for us.” also made you work for that. Steiger: Who was that? Steiger: Oh yeah, he had a knack for comin’ by Hansen: Dave Foster and Bob Hallett. And so at right after we’d had a big ol’ dinner and saying, “Oh, the end of that trip they went to Fred and said, “Give the toilet in Room 4 is stopped up. Who’s gonna fix him to us, we’ll take him.” But Fred was like, “Wait a that?” minute.” So it worked out that I got another trip at Hansen: Exactly right. You can point that out, you arr. Actually, I got two more trips that season, so I did can say it was free room and board, but really, it wasn’t four trips. all that free. Some of the funniest times, and the cama- When I talked to Fred at the end of that first sea- raderie builders amongst those of us that worked for son, I told him, “I’m not coming back unless I have Fred, were those little chores he made us do in lieu of a full-time job.” And he laughed and said, “Well of the room and board. Going out and fixing that water course you will.” But if he wouldn’t have given me that line, some of those events that would happen were just opportunity, at least I knew enough then that there hilarious! And looking back on it, it was like, “Oh my were so many other companies. I would have tried to God, that was kind of fun, wasn’t it?” At the time, it have gotten a job with somebody else. I was not going was drudgery. to leave. Steiger: Brian’s talking about fixing the water line. Steiger: Well let me ask you this— You start out Vermilion Cliffs, to this day, is supplied by—there’s there, and you kind of get dissed by Ed and Dennis, a spring. There’s a place they’ve captured it, there’s a and then you’re relegated to the warehouse, and then little catchment box, and they catch this water in the you go off with Hallett and Dave; they say, “Come spring that’s coming out of the Vermilion Cliffs, and work for Hatch.” —Why didn’t you? Fred’s like, “No, there’s a one-inch plastic pipe that comes out of that, no, stay here.” You could have just said, “Sorry, Fred, and it probably goes, what is it, two miles, three miles? screw you guys, I’m going to work for Hatch.” A good three miles, down through this Chinle Shale Hansen: I guess I could have, but you have to re- and all this soft rock. member, I was eighteen years old. I’m also a very loyal Hansen: The “blue meanies,” as Pam called ’em. person. If anybody ever gives me an opportunity, I will Steiger: And comes to this holding tank where stick around with that person until they basically kick Vermilion Cliffs’ proper is. And this black pipe moves me out. And Fred gave me that chance. around as the temperature changes, and it was always Steiger: So you weren’t gonna pull out on Fred? busting, and somebody would have to go up and find Hansen: I wasn’t going to do that to Fred, because where it was broken, and screw that pipe back togeth- Fred gave me a chance. Yeah, I think that’s the reason er. And when I was first there, Ross Garrison was the why. water line expert. But he kind of had us all sandbagged Steiger: Boy, that’s Fred. That’s him in a nutshell. like it was this terrible job. He’d put on this pack and “Fred and Carol Burke’s Home for Wayward Boys hike off and everybody’d be like, “Oh God, that’s so and Girls.” I didn’t appreciate with Fred, with Arizona brutal. Please, God, don’t make me have to go fix the River Runners—the unique thing about that company water line.” (laughs) But when you finally start doin’ it, is, when Fred had it, and the warehouse was at Vermil- there were lots of worse things that you could be doin’ ion Cliffs, you got free room and board all summer, other than hikin’ up there. It was a pretty nice little ol’ which was huge. You literally had no expenses. I didn’t hike. Find where it was broke. Pretty satisfying, just even know, the first ten years I worked there, I got no put the thing back together. But you talk about an old education on how to fend for myself, payin’ rent and place that was run by a wing and a prayer—that whole utilities and all these things, because I didn’t have to. I water line. had this little place on a ranch in Prescott, and I’d just go from, like, summer camp to the winter camp. In the * * * winter I had really cheap rent, and there were no utili- ties. Had to get diesel for the generator, but that was… Hansen: I would like to talk about Bill Gloeckler, But the room and board I didn’t appreciate until I because if you think about the influences that were the really jumped ship and kind of left Arizona River Run- greatest… We’ve been talking about Fred, but really, ners. Then it was like, “Oh, you mean I’ve gotta feed Fred is overshadowed by Bill’s presence, because who myself in between trips? And house myself? And do all Bill was, and who he kind of still is, and what he of- that?” So that helped a lot. I mean, that was a big help fered to both Eve and myself, is tremendous. So there’s

page 32 grand canyon river guides a lot to talk about there. And then Bill offered me the do know is there was one night when Bill was still in opportunity to work for the Grand Canyon Conserva- the midst of making his decisions…. Bill plays man- tion Program, and that’s when I met Kim Crumbo. dolin, as you know, and I’ve played guitar for a long I think Kim was another figure in my life that truly time. And Howie Clark played banjo. One night we influenced who I became as a trip leader. Working for all got together while this was all goin’ on, at v.c. We Kim, and then eventually taking over a position that picked music and stayed up all night long. We waited was similar to Kim’s, taught me a lot about how to or- ’til the sun came up before we decided it was time to ganize trips that are so far flung and spread out: what go to bed. (chuckles) But at the end of that experience, your communication systems are, what you have to Bill and I just had a quick conversation and I told him, do if someone does get hurt very badly. So I still want “You know, Bill, I know you’re thinking about who it is to talk about those people, because they were very that you want to keep. I just want to let you know I’m important in my education. in it for the duration. I’m here to help you make this Steiger: So you want to talk about Gloeckler first? work, and I’ll do whatever you want me to do, and I’m Hansen: Sure. In 1985, I believe it was, Fred decided here.” So he understood that I was going to wave the it was time to retire, get out of the business. And so he arr banner, and I was going to go forward. I’ve told announced that to everybody, and it was in—I believe people in the past that Bill Gloeckler took care of me. it was in ’86—that Bill showed up, and his presence I think that was a misstatement. I think he didn’t “take was there permanently. We made the transition of care of me,” quote, unquote. What he did was he gave starting the season in Vermilion Cliffs, and ending the me opportunity. He always said, “Brian, do you think season in Flagstaff. That was when I first met Bill and you’re up for doing this? Can you do this?” And what Bruce [Winter], because Bruce was down there too, he learned was that whenever he gave me an opportu- also trying to figure out what were they going to keep, nity and I said yes, I was going to follow through, and and how were we going to make this transition from he could count on that. You ask any employer, if you what Fred had into what we have now. It wasn’t easy, have employees that do what they say they’re gonna because what Fred had built was not going to trans- do, you want to keep those people around. And so fer over to what Bill and Bruce wanted. They had an that’s what he did for me and for Eve. He allowed us to entirely different vision. I think that there was some work together for fifteen years. He gave us continuous reticence from us because we were so in love with opportunities to do that. Bill never gave me anything what was going on that we didn’t want to see anything I didn’t earn. But I worked for him loyally, and if I was change. And of course Bill, now he’s up to his ears in still doing it, I still would. He is a very good role model debt, and he’s worried about the park service maybe for all the young people that are coming in. I mean, he changing the rules on him like they had done in his has—not just by himself, of course—but he has taken relco days. He’s got an entirely different world…. His that company from being one of the smallest river experience is different than ours. companies that existed, into the largest one that is. Steiger: Yeah. Oh, very much so. Gloeckler had Steiger: Yeah, by far. already had the rug totally pulled out from under him, Hansen: And when you see the transition and the just like Fred had a couple of times in his life. Both of change that has occurred from when Fred handed it those guys had already experienced significant losses. I over to them, to what’s happening now, it’s a complete- remember drinking with Gloeckler at v.c. [Vermillion ly different universe, it’s a whole different thing. And Cliffs], like the day after he found out he was gonna it’s largely because of his presence. He knew how to lose relco [an earlier Grand Canyon company he’d take all of these people with very strong opinions and been involved in]. He was not a happy camper. So I’m very headstrong ideals, thinking about this is the way it sure when he started with you guys, he didn’t want to should be, and somehow coalescing all of those differ- do that again. ent personalities into this company that worked. And Hansen: No. And having had that experience, he it was great to be a part of it. It was really a lot of fun. was looking at the situation with completely different But yeah, he offered me a lot of different things, not the eyes than we were. So there was—I don’t want to call it least of which was to be the outfitters’ representative for friction, but there were just some misunderstandings. the Colorado River Conservation Program. And that At one point, Bill just wanted to clean house altogether, was huge. In the beginning, Eve and I were doing those just wanted to get rid of all of us, and put his own peo- trips that Crumbo was putting on—the unpaid trips, ple in. But thank God he came to his senses! (laughs) the resource management trips—and we were doing Steiger: What do you suppose triggered that? them for free. And I don’t know who came up with the Hansen: I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. All I idea of coalescing the park service with the outfitters, boatman’s quarterly review page 33 Eve, Brian and Zachary Hansen on the river. and kind of getting that whole thing together. I don’t Hansen: Just for the fun of it. know whose idea that was, but they were looking for Steiger: Just to do the good works? someone to represent the outfitters, so Bill offered it to Hansen: Well, that, and we were looking for a way me, and I said, “Fine.” Bill had approached Crumbo, to spend our time. We had these winters when we because Crumbo had been doing it for a while, but weren’t doing anything, and it seemed like this was a there was not a program that involved the outfitters good way to go. I think I told you earlier I really en- and the park service as a cohesive unit. It was boatmen joyed being a boatman in Grand Canyon. It’s all I ever that were volunteering for working with the park ser- really wanted to be. And so when there was an oppor- vice, but they weren’t making any money. At the time tunity like that, it’s like, “Wow, I get to do more of it!” my wife and I started doing it, there was no money So that’s what we said, “Okay, let’s go do this.” So each involved at all, it was purely volunteer. And then even- company would sponsor one trip at a time, and they tually there became a $200 stipend, but then there was would give their boatmen the opportunity to work this idea of involving all the outfitters and paying the with the park service and do various things the park guides that were involved with it. And Bill approached service is mandated to do. But it wasn’t just trails trips, me and said they needed someone to kind of organize it was everything that was done in Grand Canyon: this new program. And since I had experience with hydrology, archaeology, botany, wildlife. There were it, he thought I would be a good candidate for it. So all kinds of trips that would monitor everything you I interviewed for the job and I got it, and did that for could imagine, from counting birds to counting how quite a number of years. And that was really important, many helicopter flights were leaving from the Hualapai I think, in kind of softening the relationship between side of the river—we did that one time, just monitor- the boatmen in general—and I mean boatmen, not ing the usage in the lower part of the canyon. So it was the outfitters per se, but boatmen in general and their everything you could possibly imagine. perception about what the park service is mandated to Steiger: So you would run trips with commercial do, and what they actually do when they’re working in boats? the wilderness area in Grand Canyon. Hansen: And park service boats. Steiger: Now you said you and Eve were doing it on Steiger: But all that went through you? You were a volunteer basis? You were going on trails trips, just like doing logistics—kind of what gcmrc does now, is for… that right?

page 34 grand canyon river guides Hansen: Yeah, that would be a good comparison. describe to us the most interesting person you’ve Off the top of my head I would say from, oh, ’94, ’95, met while working here.” I thought, “Wow. Of all the and did that all the way up until 2002, 2004. people I’ve worked with, of all the passengers that I’ve Steiger: But the deal you were doing was funded by met over 35 years of river running. Pick one person?!” the outfitters—by the commercial sector? But I chose Randy Thompson, because he was so Hansen: Right. They were basically paying the boat- colorful. Randy was the kind of guy, that if he would men and buying the food, so that the cost to the park have been in New Orleans, and was inside the stadium service was minimal. It was a great deal for them. where everyone was thrown during Hurricane Ka- Steiger: Yeah, really good deal. It was the right trina—you know how all this humanity was in there, thing to do. and all that was going on inside of the stadium?—af- Hansen: Well yeah, I think it was. It really softened ter a couple of days, every single person in that place the stance a lot of boatmen had about the park service, would have known who Randy Thompson was. That’s because frankly, I think a lot of people were ignorant the kind of guy he was. Everyone would know who he about what the park service is mandated to do, and was. Yeah, “Who is this crazy guy?!” And people loved why they’re doing the things they’re doing. You would him for it. He was tough and moody and partied way often hear people put the park service down because of too hard, but you just had to love him. I don’t know of whatever. They would see people on the river build- one person who didn’t enjoy the fact that they knew ing trails, or “manicuring the beaches” I used to hear him—not one. After they cremated him, he had always people saying. “But this is a wilderness area, you’re not said he wanted his ashes dumped in the third mule supposed to touch it at all. You’re not supposed to be piss stop down Bright Angel Trail. He said that over impacting this.” And what they didn’t understand was and over again, numerous times. And so Crumbo said, that this was to alleviate the impact, it wasn’t an impact “Alright.” So they took about a third of his ashes, sure in and of itself. So I think that this really helped a lot. as shit they put it right there. They threw ’em in the Steiger: I remember in the mid-seventies there was third mule piss stop on the way down. The rest of it, I a knee-deep trail, straight up the talus slope at Saddle, forgot what happened to one-third of it, but the other and there was this spaghetti of trails—there were third they put onto a paddleboat on one of those Con- like ten different trails goin’ up to Nankoweap. And servation Program trips, and the trail crew boys were Crumbo wasn’t even working for the park. Somewhere going to take the paddleboat into the 209 Mile hole in there he was working for Ken Sleight, and then he and intentionally spill it so that Randy would have a was working for the park. And then my sense of it was ride, and he would have his last… They couldn’t turn that he got ahold of those guys and he was the guy that that boat over! They ran that hole I think four times said, “We gotta start fixing these trails, or these people before they finally tipped it over, and Randy finally got are gonna trample this canyon.” to go into the river. So we camped at 220 that night, Hansen: That’s exactly what it was. It was his brain- and I was on the beach, relieving myself, and I looked child, and he took it upon himself to have park service up, and here comes Randy’s ash box down the river. I backing to start this thing. If it wouldn’t have been for mean, it had sunk, it had gone, and it’s just like, “Okay, him, I don’t think it would have been done at all. The it’s gone, we’re never gonna see it again.” And there it fact that it worked probably made a lot of people in was, out in the middle of the river! I could see it, way the park service jealous of Crumbo, because he had off in the distance as it was coming through that last the ability to see that this was something that needed little rapid. There’s a lot of interesting currents right to be done, and he was getting to go on river trips and there, and you would think that it would at least go do it. So yeah, the multiple trailing thing, making sure downstream, but it came right to me. It floated right the trails were maintained so that they weren’t knee up to my feet and landed right there. It was like, “Oh deep, as you say—because that’s what they’ll do, the Randy,” you know, “you’re not givin’ up, are you?” So I water will just run straight down a trail unless you picked up that ash box and I showed everybody. And check it, and you’ve gotta know how to do that. So everybody was like, “Well, we know what we gotta do yeah, it was him who started that. But then, of course, with that.” So opened the whiskey bottle, poured the it grew from trails to all sorts of things. contents inside of the box, and everybody passed it around and drank Randy. * * * Steiger: My God. Hansen: Did you ever meet Randy? A few years ago this woman said, “I want you to tell Steiger: I can’t remember, to be honest with you. I a story to everybody around the campfire, and just may well have. boatman’s quarterly review page 35 Hansen: Well Randy, in later years, had long white tually killed, no one could believe it. It’s like, “No, not hair. He aged beyond his years in the last five or six Randy.” We were working on the Tapeats Creek Trail, years of his life, because he did live a hard life. He and that first chute—where you hike through that went with both ends lit. He was a Vietnam vet. I think first chute to get up to the first level, that was where he served two tours of duty in Vietnam, and he was Randy was working. We broke up in different groups a platoon leader. He was awarded, I believe it was the to work on different parts of the trail. Eve and I and Silver Star and the Purple Heart, and was involved in our group, we went up to the base of the Redwall, right some pretty heavy-duty fighting over there. His stories there by Thunder River. So we were past the Thunder of the war are horrific, like so many of our friends that River aquifer. We were camped up on that first ledge went there and came back—like Whale, for instance. there, that little valley that goes across over into Deer And it affected Randy terribly. And when he came Creek. It snowed that night and it stuck. I would say back, he had a really hard time reentering civilization, there were three, four inches of snow on the ground so to speak. I think he actually spent a little time in that night. So it was cold, and the weather was hor- jail, always getting in trouble. But I remember him rible, and it was socked in. Anyway, the morning that telling me that discovering the Grand Canyon saved we took off to go up there, I think we were up there for his life. When he started working for the trail crew, he two or three days… That morning I said goodbye to realized that this is it, this is where the end of the jour- Randy. I don’t know, I always wanted to say goodbye ney’s gonna be. I’m not certain how long he worked to Randy whenever we broke up. I don’t know why, I for the park service, but I think it’s somewhere in the just always did. It was just a little ritual that he and I neighborhood of twenty years. had, just shake each other’s hand and say, “See you in Boy, was he a character! I’ll tell you what, he’s one a couple of days.” And Randy surprised me by look- of those people that strike you, because he was as hard ing out across the river—and this is no joke, this is as nails and very opinionated, and he had no problem what he said—he looked out across the river, then he at all telling you what he thought. And if he didn’t like looked up at the cliff behind the camp there, just the you, he’d tell you. But fortunately, he liked me; and he lower camp across from Tapeats Creek, downstream always liked Eve, he always thought that Eve had a re- of there—and he looked up at the cliff and then he ally nice smile and he would tell her so. But he would said, “This is not such a bad place to die.” I just left it just drink way too much. We had to put a lifejacket on at that, I didn’t question him, what he meant, what he him a couple of times so he wouldn’t fall in the river was talking about. and drown, but he was always up and always willing to Steiger: You just went to him and said goodbye, work. And he was the guy that could never die. There’s “see you in a day or two?” a story of him when they were working on—it might Hansen: Yeah, “see you in a day or two,” like we al- have been the Hermit Trail—they were working on ways did if the group broke up and we were gonna be the trail during the day, and they bivouacked on the apart for a couple of days. And he said that, and I am trail itself at nighttime. And the edge of the trail was not suggesting that what he did was suicidal. I never cliff, and it went down…. I wasn’t there to see it, but saw that in Randy, and I don’t believe that’s true, but the description is like 500 feet, just straight down on he did say that to me, and that statement has always the other side. And Randy, doing what Randy always resonated in my memory, because that’s the last thing did at night, he gets up to go take a pee off the edge of Randy said to me. That’s the last time I saw him alive. the canyon, and he falls off the edge. They’re saying, So anyway, we were up there for a couple of days, “Where’s Randy? Oh my God! He fell off the edge! and the night before it happened, it snowed and the He’s dead! He’s dead! We’re gonna have to go down weather was just awful. It was our time to come back there and retrieve him.” They’re, “Randy! Randy!” the next morning. Everything was wet and soggy and Then you hear this voice come up and say, “I’m down miserably cold and it was flurrying as we were walking here, you sons of bitches! Drop a rope down and get back from Thunder River. As we approached that last me!” He’d fallen into this little scrub tree and was in chute coming down, we ran into a couple of the park it, hanging onto the tree. They threw a rope down and service people, and they were acting kind of funny. hauled him out. It’s stories like that, that led people to I said, “What’s up?” And that’s when we heard what believe Randy was indestructible. And that’s not the had happened. We saw where the stone was that had only story like that. I mean he was involved in several been dislodged and was being used for part of the trail near misses that you just couldn’t believe anybody there. The stone was good-sized, probably the size of would survive. He had a number of them to his credit. this thing right here. So when this trip happened where Randy was even- Steiger: Okay, this is like a foot rest or something.

page 36 grand canyon river guides What would you call that? getting air. He probably had broken a bunch of ribs, Hansen: Yeah, it’s a foot rest, and it’s about, oh, maybe possibly had a hemothorax or pneumothorax two and a half feet by two and a half feet by a foot in going on. So by the time that they got the first aid kit depth. That was about the size of the stone that was up there and were thinking about moving him down, being used. that was the first time he coded. And so they did chest Steiger: So that must have weighed 400 pounds. compressions, basically cpr, and they got him to come Hansen: Yup. And he was in charge of that section back. So his heart started beating again. They got of trail, and he’s well aware of the safety issues that are him on a back board and were starting to move him involved in this. And he put himself in that location, down the trail to where they thought the helicopter below where this heavy work was being done. I mean, could land. And the weather was lousy, just awful. I he did it intentionally. think that if you would have called the park service, Steiger: So these guys are trying to move this rock a the helicopters wouldn’t have flown. That’s how bad little ways? the weather was. So eventually they got the Air Force Hansen: Uh-huh. And they’re way up at the top of from Vegas, and they brought in a big helicopter, and it the chute, and he’s working down at the bottom. For landed there at the mouth of the creek, because there’s some reason—he wore glasses when he worked, and a sizeable piece of sand there, and it’s big enough to he usually put them on when he was working on the allow a large helicopter to arrive. But they said the trail—he didn’t wear his glasses that day. So not only pilot was thinking about ditching. The weather was so was he in a bad location, but if something were to fall, bad he said he wasn’t gonna do it, but then eventually he couldn’t see it very well. And that’s what happened. he found a way, so the helicopter was there. They said So the rock slipped free, and that’s a pretty steep chute from the time they packaged him and were moving right there. So it picked up speed quickly. And the him down the hill, to the time that the helicopter ar- story I heard—because there were people that were rived, he coded two more times. So they did cpr and kind of in the middle too—once they heard it com- brought him back three times, which is astounding. I ing, they raced to the edge of the little canyon there mean, that is just an amazing thing, that he was still and avoided being struck themselves. But that rock alive. So they got him on the helicopter and he was still started rolling, and then started bouncing. On, I guess, living when the helicopter took him to Vegas. the second bounce, it broke in half, and so now there We didn’t hear until Lava—we were running Lava were two objects going down. One kind of veered off and that’s when the helicopter came in. The weather and struck the side of the cliff and stopped there, but was much better, and that’s when a smaller helicopter the other one went directly towards him. And he was came in and landed. standing there, and didn’t have his glasses, so I don’t Steiger: The nps chopper? know how well he could have seen it anyway. The story Hansen: Yeah. And they landed downstream there, is that he saw it, and he was stooping down. He was first camp on the right below Lava. So we ran Lava in the motion of getting down to where he could get and we all pulled in, and they told us he had died in behind another rock so that he could avoid getting the hospital. That’s when the trip broke up. They were hit, but he wasn’t fast enough. So he was in a stooped gonna have a service up at the South Rim for him, so position like this, and the rock struck him right here Crumbo and a good two-thirds of the trip just took in the ribcage. I saw where he was standing, and I off right there. They were gonna take out at Diamond saw where it was that they started working on him. It Creek as fast as they possibly could. But the trip was threw him a good fifteen feet, just the impact of that still on. So Crumbo put me in charge. He said, “Okay, stone. When they got to him, they asked him, “Randy, you’re the trip leader now. Go down to 209 and get are you okay?” This is indestructible Randy kind of the work done there.” He had the itinerary and stuff. thing. They had witnessed what had happened, but no That’s what I did. I was kind of sorry I wasn’t go- one was believing what they had seen. “Randy, are you ing out, because I really wanted to go to the service. okay?” He’s like, “Fuck no, I’m not okay!” And they But on the other hand, I was also kind of proud that said, “Can you feel your feet? Can you feel your arms?” Crumbo picked me to be the trip leader. And I felt He said, “I can’t feel anything from my waist down—I responsible, so that was what I did. can’t feel it at all.” And then he must have had some Interestingly, there was a Zuni man on that trip internal injuries up here in his ribcage because he who was in charge of the trail building and flash was having a hard time breathing. He didn’t have flood hydrology over on the Zuni Reservation in New any injury to his face or to his neck, so he didn’t have Mexico, and he was a Vietnam vet. His name was that to worry about, but he was having a tough time Gabriel Yuselew. He was describing this battle that he boatman’s quarterly review page 37 had been involved in, to Randy, on that trip. He said, you know what that is? “Yeah, I was in this battle called Operation Ripcord,” Steiger: That’s part of the Wilderness Act? You’ve got and Randy said, “Oh, I was there too.” He was like, to use the minimum tool you can get the job done with? “Really?! Do you remember this helicopter…” Because Hansen: Exactly. Like, for example, instead of using they were surrounded by the Viet Cong, and the only a chain saw, you have to use a hand-held band saw. way they were getting supplies in was by helicopter, Steiger: For tamarisk eradication. and they were just shooting at it with everything they Hansen: Right, or any tree for whatever. But had, every time that the helicopter would come in or anyway, anything fell underneath that, including the go out. So all their supplies were being brought in, and transportation of human waste, and all of these toilets they were just shootin’ the shit out of these helicopters that existed in these wilderness areas, like at Tapeats as they were coming in. There was one coming in that Creek and Deer Creek and Hermit Creek. For a while was loaded with ammunition, and a lucky shot hit there, we were stopping on these trips, hiking up there, some portion of the payload, and the whole thing blew pulling the poop container out, shoveling that dry up. So ten, twelve feet off the ground, this very large shit into these containers, putting it on backpacks and helicopter loaded with ammunition blows up and just hauling it down to the boat, putting it on the boats, puts this huge crater in the ground. And Gabe was up and taking it out to Diamond Creek. there, and he said he was a hundred yards away from Steiger: And putting a new container in? Or no, that helicopter when it blew up, and he was inside of there was just a drawer that you’d shovel out and put a deep trench, so it’s all earth behind him. And he was back in there? sitting next to this one fellow, and the power of this Hansen: Yeah. And it was a big tub, but we were explosion was so great that it sent shrapnel through shoveling it into these smaller containers because Crum- the ground and it killed the man sitting next to him. bo didn’t want there to be the impact of a helicopter, Shrapnel went through the earth a hundred yards. which is what was normally used: helicopter comes in, That’s an amazing explosion. And it killed the man hovers in the air, you hook it up, it takes it away. But, be- sitting right next to him. He said it could have easily cause it’s a wilderness area, he wanted to get away from been him. He told Randy, “Do you remember this heli- the use of this helicopter and do it with the minimum copter exploding?” And Randy said, “Yeah, I saw that. tool. So we were considered the minimum tool. He I was down the hill when that helicopter blew up.” So also tried it with mules. He brought mules in, and we they were in the same place, and then they met again were shoveling it into these containers, putting it on all those years later. So they had this connection, they the backs of mules, and the mules were carrying it out. understood what it was that they experienced—you As you can imagine, this was not a very popular job, can only imagine the relationship you would have with and everybody had a pretty strong opinion about this someone else who was in the same position all those particular one. But we went up to Hermit because there years ago. So Randy’s death affected Gabe quite a bit. was one toilet up there that hadn’t been working for a Steiger: Was Gabe there in the chute? while. You know, there’s a little sun dish up on the top Hansen: Uh-huh. So I guess the end to the story is there that powers the little fan that’s underneath, and not so much about Randy, but about Gabe, because that fan is supposed to be running all the time to aer- Gabe didn’t really talk about it until the very last night ate the poop that’s in there. But that had been broken when we were camped at 220, getting ready to take for months, and it, through the summer, had not been out the next morning. There was no party. As you aerating. So this is wet poop that’s in there. And also, can imagine, things were kind of somber after that. when hikers go into the canyon they, more often than We didn’t have any driftwood, but I had a large bag not, carry much more gear than they need, so they’re of charcoal. So I lit the charcoal, so we had a charcoal bringing all this shit, and then they realize they’ve got fire. At least it was warm out, but it was just Gabe and to leave and they want to get rid of it. So where’s the myself, and Gabe didn’t drink. He had sworn himself most obvious place to get rid of it? The toilet. So mixed off the stuff, but for some reason that night he said, in with all of this stuff is everything you can possibly “Brian, I want you to grab me a couple of beers and imagine. There’s magazines, batteries. then come sit with me.” So we sat by that charcoal Steiger: Whatever people aren’t carrying back out fire and he drank the first beers he’d had in probably of there. twenty years, and he told me stories about Vietnam. It Hansen: And you can only imagine. It’s all mixed was kind of special. And it was all because of Randy. in there. Well, you have to separate that stuff from There’s one story about Randy you’ll appreciate. the actual poop and put that stuff in bags and then Crumbo had this idea…. The minimum tool thing— put it into these boxes and put the lid on it. So you’re

page 38 grand canyon river guides there, and this was wet. So when we arrived to do this, * * * when we pulled it out, the stench was horrible. And these are trail crew people, boatmen. These are people If you look over the people that influenced me the that are used to dealing with poop. It was so bad that most, Bill Gloeckler overshadows everyone; and then no one would get within fifty feet of this thing. We Crumbo, just by being around him, and I guess just by actually had a few of us down by the creek, because pure osmosis I just acquired so many things from him they were throwing up the smell was just so vile. They just by being around him. But as far as who taught me had brought some respirators and hazmat suits so my craft, I have to say that Dick Clark was the biggest the people that were actually up there and shoveling influence on me. it could be wearing the hazmat suits. But Randy, not As a boatman, yeah, because his style, the way that only was he not wearing a respirator and the hazmat he viewed running that big ol’ motorboat, he viewed it suit, he was wearing Bermuda shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, as an art, and he taught me how to move it on a dime, flip-flops, and he was chewing gum, while he’s up how to back it just right, how to feel the river through there shoveling this shit. the boat and into your feet. He treated driving that Steiger: “Nah, I don’t need that suit.” boat very much the way that he flies his little airplane. Hansen: No. “I don’t need that. You guys are a And he was a skydiver too—the thrill of feeling the bunch of pussies.” That kind of thing. So we’re up air current. He acquainted that very much with water there with the respirators on, Randy’s there looking current. No slight against you or anybody else, because like he’s supposed to be at the beach, and he’s shov- we all are very proud of our ability to drive our boats, eling through this stuff … and then he stops for a because that’s what we do for a living, but I never second. And then he reaches over and finds something saw anyone else do it the way he did. And he taught and he’s starting to pull it next to him, and the rest me how to do that, and that was clearly a big influ- of us, of course we’re all covered with respirators, but ence on me, and has everything to do with the way we’re looking at each other like, “What is he gonna do that I taught people how to run a motorboat in the now?!” And he pulls over this box of cigars, and it’s years that followed. So I have to mention him for that still wrapped in the cellophane. He had this little knife reason… that he always kept with him, and he opened it up, Dick’s delivery with the people, he had some cards and he kind of (scratches) opens up the cellophane, up his sleeve that were very good. I remember on the and he opens the lid to this box of cigars. And with his last night, on more than a few occasions he would re- bare hand he reaches in there, grabs a handful of these cite from memory the last five pages of Powell’s book, cigars and puts ’em in his pocket, and then he says, right there at the very end, that wonderful description “Boys, that there is some good shit!” (laughter) of the Grand Canyon. Everyone knows that. He had Steiger: Not too worried about the little stuff. memorized that, five pages of it, word for word. Hansen: So anyway, that was Randy. Steiger: And what was it he said to you there at * * * Tapeats? “This is a good place to die”? Hansen: Yeah, “This is not such a bad place to die.” As per usual in the editorial process for these bqr oral Yeah. histories, there comes a point of despair—there won’t be Steiger: But that was like two days before that hap- room for hardly any of all the great stuff Brian has lived pened? through and talked about here in the overall interview: Hansen: Uh-huh. Yeah. I didn’t question him. It the epic flood at Havasu where Mike Tagget rigged up just seemed to me to be an odd thing to say, but that’s the Tyrolean traverse; that time the waterspout at Cove what he said. That’s the last thing he said to me. Kind Canyon threw three row boats up on shore with one of eerie, huh? of them landing upside down on top of the doctor who Steiger: Real eerie. You wonder if it was something would’ve surely been killed if the front deck lid hadn’t he even thought of, or if it just kind of came out of his opened just enough to hold the whole thing off him (and mouth right there. somehow the full Johnny Partner toilet vault just missed Hansen: People speculated on whether he had in- him too); the night the rocks fell at Trinity and Brian tentionally set himself up for that accident, and I just dove under the boats out of a sound sleep to escape and don’t see that. one rock punched a star-shaped hole through the dia- Steiger: Doesn’t sound like he would be that kind mond plate frame and on into the boat itself—how they of guy. patched that thing the next day; not to mention the time Hansen: No. Brian carried the guy his same size who broke his ankle boatman’s quarterly review page 39 on that big talus slope up Carbon all the way out to the tainly had the ability to do it. Now that I’ve become a river piggyback, single-handed, because there wasn’t nurse—you know, I went back to school to get that de- time to do it any other way and pull it off…. gree, and now I work at the jail—being a doctor would have been fine. At least I wouldn’t have had to worry * * * about growing old and being monetarily stable. But on the other hand, all I ever really wanted to do is be Hansen: You know, the last time you were here I a Grand Canyon boatman. I loved it. I absolutely loved told you I’ve got a dozen stories that are good stories. I my job, and I just couldn’t get enough of it. If you really should write them down and publish ’em. were to ask me would I go back and do it over again, I Steiger: Yeah, or at the very least, just record them. would do it over again in an instant, even if I couldn’t Just talk ’em out, but yeah. change anything; even if I didn’t have the power to Hansen: Yeah, because they’re entertaining, they’re change my mistakes; or maybe I should have done this good stories, and I think people would enjoy reading instead of doing that; or maybe my relationship with ’em. I probably should. this particular person should have been better. Even Steiger: Yeah. Well, what do we need to cover for if I could just go back and just do it all over again, I your unborn grandchildren here? would do it in an instant, because I loved it, loved it. Hansen: You know, I could have gotten a degree— I would tell my grandchildren, “Find something that looking back on it now, I think that becoming a doctor you love doing, and do it. Do as much of it as you pos- wouldn’t have been such a bad life, because I cer- sibly can.” That’s what I would say.

Who Are These White Water River Expeditions Boatmen, ca. 1980–’82?

Find the answer on page 46.

page 40 grand canyon river guides Back of the Boat The Whale Foundation News Bulletin

2014 Kenton Grua Memorial Scholarship ed in volunteering for the board or in other capacities, The Whale Foundation is proud to announce that please get in touch. We still have one position open this year’s scholarship recipients are Alexis Kimball on the Wing Ding committee and we sure could use a and Kent Wagner of Canyon Explorations and Somer little more help this year. Volunteering for something Morris of azra. Thanks to all of our applicants and big or small, either way we would certainly appreciate congratulations to the winners. it. Contact us through our website, Facebook or email We encourage all guides with at least 5 years experi- me directly at [email protected]. ence in the Grand Canyon to apply. Applicants do not need to be currently working as a guide. Grants are Dan Hall awarded to guides with traditional and non-traditional educational paths. All applications are blinded be- fore a rigorous review to insure impartiality. Support Monsoon at from the community has allowed the Foundation to award up to three $2000 scholarships annually. See our Diamond Creek website for more info: Whalefoundation.org. The next application deadline is June 1, 2015

The 2015 Whale Foundation Calendar is all about Wildlife The new calendar is coming! We expect it from the printers at the end of September. This year we asked boatmen to submit their favorite wildlife shots. The calendar is full of Bighorn, Beetles, Butterflies and Beaver. Check out our Facebook page to see a couple of the amazing images you will find inside the calen- dar: www.facebook.com/WhaleFoundation. Calendars are $12/ea and $3/ea shipping. Order by calling, send a check, or email: bigdanhall@gmail. com. You can also pick one up at our office at 515 w. Birch Flagstaff az 86002 or retail stores in Flagstaff that carry it (a list of these will be provided on our Facebook page as well.) Special thanks to Bronze Black who singlehandedly designed it this year and to all the contributing photographers. If you are thinking about giving them as gifts, great! There are discounts for orders over ten.

13th Annual Wing Ding Mark your calendars! We will hold our 13th Annual Wing Ding on Saturday, February 21, 2015 from 6-11pm at the Coconino Center for the Arts in Flagstaff.

Volunteering We will be saying goodbye to Ann-Marie Bring- hurst and Laura Fallon this fall as they are finishing their three year terms. They have been invaluable in the positions of president and vice-president respec- From the Everything We Know is Wrong file: “Hey! What happened to the truck we parked up at the ‘safe spot’?” tively. Even though they will be missed greatly, the photo: Greg Woodall board is looking for new members. If you are interest- boatman’s quarterly review page 41 S (Smith) – Rigs

ctober 2014 will be fifty years since Grand trip was featured in the May ’69 edition of National Canyon Expeditions (gce) ran its first Geographic magazine. Ocommercial river trip. My uncle, Ron Smith, This summer’s 2014 bqr showcased sixteen historic had the opportunity to guide a group of geoscientists Ron Hayes photographs (pages 10–13). The photo through the canyon, spearheaded by Dr. Peter Foose titled “Dory boats and motor rigs” includes three of Amherst, ma. The crew consisted of Ron, Lee dories and three rafts nosed to shore with twenty or Richmond, and Les Jones—well recognized for his so people standing on the boats and in the sand. Ron scroll maps of many rivers of the west—as well as their is captured in the foreground of this photo wearing customers from Massachusetts. Dean Waterman, a long jeans and a red East High ball cap. It appears he friend that Ron had met when they were employed at is standing on the furthest upstream raft (possibly a Utah Resin, attended to getting everyone to the river, Harris-Brennan tail dragger). The other two rafts are and, most importantly, driving the truck around to the undoubtedly gce “Smith rigs” donning side tubes and “take-out.” The arduous task of hauling the surplus the first generation of basket frames. In the spring of pontoon, Les’s solo hard hull, and all the other river 1967, Ron introduced plywood/fiberglass insert frames equipment was well planned. Everyone pitched in with below deck storage, an inside motor mount, and and schlepped their gear with frame packs. The raft Wooldridge adjustable transom (Jackass). And, inter- was carried on a sort of unicycle litter (a wheeled estingly, my father remembers Ron enumerating about conveyance designed for hauling large game out of the how well the “new boat” performed in several of the backcountry) and presumably other contrivances were major rapids, and in particular, “how incredibly great” created on the Whitmore Trail, that made this unique it felt to be driving an inside motor mount though this “put-in” possible near mile 190. challenging new rapid that formed at the mouth of Ron began running rivers in the 1950s and early Crystal Creek. (Ron ran a tail dragger with side tubes 1960s. Sometime after his initial trip on the Green and on his last trip of the season in August ’66 and was Colorado Rivers, he met Ken Sleight who was work- deep in the throes of creating a new boat design when ing as a substitute teacher at East High School in Salt Crystal Rapid formed in December ’66.) Lake City. Mr. Sleight invited Ron and a few other In 1973, my Uncle Ron was contacted by John students to join him on a trip through Glen Canyon. Blashford-Snell (j b-s) and Jim Masters of the Scientific Georgie White was a name well recognized, especially Exploration Society (ses) of Great Britain. They were by people who were interested in running rivers. I am developing plans to run the 2,900 plus miles of the sure that Ron jumped at the opportunity to join her Zaire (Congo) River, essentially from its source near on a trip down the Colorado. It was on this trip that Zambia to its terminus in the Atlantic Ocean, at the Ron met Dick McCallum. Their adventurous and easy Bay of Banana. The ses’s initial pitch was to be “the going natures were a comfortable fit and resulted in first” to run the Congo River and to commemorate the some great years working together. Before Ron and his centennial of Henry Morton Stanley’s equatorial cross- wife Sheila started gce in ’64–’65, he worked on rivers ing of the African continent that included his naviga- in Utah and Idaho for Jack and Betty Ann Currey tion of a particular section of the Congo that flows (Western River Expeditions) and Bus and Don Hatch. through what is known as the “Heart of Darkness.” During gce’s first season in business Ron accepted Due to Zaire’s recent independence and its dehuman- an offer from Gay Staveley to run a Cataract boat on izing colonial past, the expedition’s organizers real- the upcoming Barry Goldwater trip. It proved to be ized that a celebration of the Welsh-born journalist a memorable experience, as I believe getting to know H.M. Stanley was inopportune and saw the wisdom Senator Goldwater “on the river” would be fascinating! of supporting Mobutu Sese Seko and his programs of Ron and his company have had tremendous success “National Authenticite” as well as his efforts to build over the years. Grand Canyon Expeditions has been Zairois Pride. The expedition officially became the Ex- highly respected for its excellent guides and equip- pedition du Fleuve Zaire (Anglo-initialized as zre with ment, as well as its remarkable warehouse, office, and z pronounced “zed”) which seemingly gave the ses home base. Although I imagine there has been no an opportunity to garner support from “Le President greater accolade than being asked to be the outfit- Mobutu” who was staging a public relations coup of ter for the 1968 National Geographic Society’s Powell his own, known in Zaire as “le combat du siecle” (the Centennial Expedition. This particular Grand Canyon battle of the century) and internationally as the “Rum-

page 42 grand canyon river guides Ron Smith running Lava Falls, 1968 Photo Credit: Walter Meyers Edwards-National Geographic Creative ble in the Jungle.” Fortuitously, the expedition was Canyon, my father left for Zaire where he joined zre as informed a few weeks before the Foreman/Ali fight lead boatman, and, as the title suggests, the whitewater that a significant donation was kindly made tozre by expert of this multi-national group. After spending a one of the fighters, and it has been my understand- few days in England, the entire expedition flew into ing that in a fit of exasperation the reigning champ the heart of Africa, the Congo Basin. The expedition doubled the ante. The rest is history! Gce supplied zre travelled for four months on the waters of Zaire with with three complete “Smith rigs” that were transported the “Smith rigs” running some of the most imposing by the Royal Air Force from Nellis Air Force Base to and formidable whitewater in the world. Gatwick, England where the expedition’s staging was taking place. In October 1974, after a season in Grand Latimer Smith

Marc Smith running the Congo, 1974 Photo Credit: Kenneth Mason-The Daily Telegraph

boatman’s quarterly review page 43 Major Contributors— July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014

rand Canyon River Guides proudly presents cooperative agreement) the very long list of major contributors who Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, advised by Gsupported our organization in numerous ways Mr. Guy M. Blynn (general support) during this last fiscal year (July 1, 2013 through June 30, Walton Family Foundation (Boatman’s Quarterly 2014). Due to space considerations, this list does not Review) reflect the five-year memberships or contributions Waterman Welding (Circle of Friends, general support) under $100 (including general contributions and Western River Expeditions (general support) Circle of Friends), of which there were many. Your Westwater Books (general support) support helps us to move forward and maintain a Whale Foundation (rent) healthy and vital organization that is better equipped Your Cause, llc, HP Company match (company match) to protect and preserve the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River experience. Memorial & Homorary Contributions We apologize in advance to anyone we may have or Memberships missed in the lists below. Please let us know. And Christopher Cahill (in memory of Wesley Smith) thanks again, not only to those acknowledged here, Lesley Jacobs (in honor of her father, Frank Jacobs) but to each and every one of you who support our Joanne Nissen (in honor of Brock DeMay, Lindsay efforts and believe in gcrg. We appreciate that support Winter, Troy Booker & Ted Decker, at the holidays) more than we can express. Thanks to you all! Individual Contributions to Prgrams Foundation, Government and Oral History Project—Richard Quartaroli Corporate Support Anne B. Wallace Foundation (Circle of Friends) General Contributions ($5,000 and up) Arizona Raft Adventures/Grand Canyon Discovery Martha Gaines & Russell Wehrle Memorial Foundation (general support, matching gifts) Michael Wehrle Ceiba Adventures (Circle of Friends) Ceres Foundation (general support) General Contributions ($1,000 to $4,999) Colorado River Discovery (general support) Arizona Raft Adventures/Grand Canyon Discovery Cork N’ Bottle (Circle of Friends) Ceres Foundation Demaree Inflatable Boats (Circle of Friends) Jim and Patty Rouse Charitable Foundation, on the Desert Medicine Institute (general support) recommendation of Jim Norton Doc-Bar Pharm (Circle of Friends) Mountain Sports (Voice Your Choice) Fred Phillips Consulting, llc (general support) Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, advised by Grand Canyon Association (Guides Training Seminar) Mr. Guy M. Blynn Grand Canyon Fund (Adopt-a-Beach, gts, Adaptive Western River Expeditions Management Program) Lauri Wilson (reduced rent for gcrg office) Hatch River Expeditions (Circle of Friends) Hohum Conco (Circle of Friends, general support) General Contributions ($500 to $999) Jim and Patty Rouse Charitable Foundation, on the Steve Asadorian recommendation of Jim Norton (general support) Mark Herring John Blaustein Photography (Circle of Friends) John A. Hartford (Discretionary Grants Program), on John A. Hartford Foundation (Discretionary Grants the recommendation of Ann Raffel Program), on the recommendation of Ms. Ann Marty and Sara Mathis Raffel Christian Stepien Martha Gaines and Russell Wehrle Memorial Foundation (general support) General Contributions ($100 to $499) Mountain Sports (Voice Your Choice) Anonymous Jan Balsom Orchids of Olinda, Inc. (Circle of Friends) Phillip Anson Frank Bender Saint Jude Enterprises (Circle of Friends) Arizona Raft Adventures/ Bill Bishop Stone Forest, Inc. (general support) Grand Canyon Discovery Alistair Bleifus U.S. Geological Survey (Adopt-a-Beach program Annette Avery Jobst Bruggeman

page 44 grand canyon river guides Christopher Cahill Barry Morenz Gary Casey Kiyomi Masatani Walt Carr Ronald & Maureen Nichols Ceiba Adventures Marv Mason (for Wesley John and Nancy Cassidy Joanne Nissen David Clayton Smith) Colorado River Discovery Jerry & Judy Overfelt Jake Coggin Dick & Susie McCallum Bill Crane (Hohum Conco) Tim Payne Lora Colten Dennis McKay Matt Craven Phil Pearl & Liza Cork N’ Bottle Priscilla McKenna Phillip Dahleimer VonRosenstiel Sharkey Cornell Pete Mills Michael Dom Ray Perkins Bill Crane (Hohum Conco) Zina Mirsky Robert & Beverly Rodolfo Petschek & Kenly Clare Curtis Brad Newman Donaldson Weills Jim Cuthbertson Ron & Maureen Nichols Pat and Roger Essick Fred Phillips Consulting, Regan Dale Jerry & Judy Overfelt Loie Evans (Westwater llc Daniel & Alida Dierker Ray Perkins Books) Rick Piette John Downing Rudi Petschek & Kenly Stephen Fickett Rachel Pike Bob Dye & Donna Koster Weills Patty Ford Rewalt Rakestraw Noel Eberz Nigel Pilling Don Foster Wayne & Helen Ranney Mike Fabry Barbara & Gene Polk Robert Gaylord Dave Rubin Stephen Fickett Tom & Tammy Richardson Bego Gerhart Barbara & Halsey Sanford Chuck & Katherine Flynn Don Ross Kevin Greif Ethan Seltzer Donald Foust Don Savant Craig Griffin Neal Shapiro Bego Gerhart Neal Shapiro Charly Heavenrich Dave Shore Sally Gist Toby Simon Jeff & Megan Hulse Toby Simon Rebecca Goodling Susan Simons Teresa Hylton Phillip Smith Rich Goodstein Nedree Simpson Steve Jellinek Martin Stephens Raymond Gorospe John C Smith & Kathleen Ed Jodice Stone Forest, Inc. Kyle Graber M Kruczek RJ Johnson Jan Taylor Mary Gratton Gaylord Staveley Kevin Johnson Peter Thomas Don Greig & Susan Martin Stephens Bert Jones Edward Townsend, Jr. Rivenbark Dave & Heather Sterling Alex Klokke Ellen Voorhees Richard & Cathy Hahn Dave Stilley John & Renee Kramer Dick Warner Linda Hammett Lauren & Blaine Stuart Katie Lee Waterman Welding Ginger Harmon Doug Stuart Sandra Lilligren Todd Weber Warren Herlong Per Sweetman John Lingenfelder Dave Wegner Jim “JB” Irving Jan Taylor Casey Lynch Joseph Willhelm Robin Johnson John & Barbara Troyer Jim Mackenzie Susan Woolf RJ Johnson Randy & Barb Tucker Steve & Cyd Martin Stephanie Yard & Charlie Dave Koch Richard & Susan Turner Pamela Mathues Moody Jeff & Diane Laughlin Dr. Richard Valdez Joanne McMenoman Marc Yeston Katie Lee Anne B. Wallace Roger Lee Foundation Circle of Friends: Stewards ($1000 to $2499) John Lingenfelder Dick Warner Saint Jude Enterprises Steve Lonie Waterman Welding Marshall Malden Jacob Wempen Circle of Friends: Protectors ($500 to $999) Steve & Cyd Martin Max Wilson Ben & Abby Hallett Phillip Smith Jim Marzolf Richard Zaunbrecher Alex Klokke Melissa Riparetti-Stepien Benefactor Membership (General) Circle of Friends: Sponsors ($100 to $499) Catherine McGuire Edward Steiner Anonymous (x3) Bill Brisbin Bill Bishop James Cady & Connie Life Membership (Guides) John Blaustein Tibbitts Bill Brisbin Kathryn Hipsher Alistair Bleifuss & Ann John Aber & Joan Dean Buchser Hank Hotze Cassidy Carstensen Margaret Chipman Jim Kranz Melanie Boone-Reznick Titus Case Matt Christensen Andrea Mikus Joe Brazie Jim Case Neil Hartling Basil Rowland boatman’s quarterly review page 45 CONTRIBUTORS CONTINUED… The Inevitable Bill Trevithick Stephen Wiley Lost and Found 2014

Life Membership (General) LOST Leslie Jacobs (in honor of Michael Mitchell Hearing aids in a grey plastic pouch, lost from an azra her father, Frank Jacobs) John Nagy trip at the Ledges camp on the right below Havasu, Amir Lafti Patricia Olson Mile 158 on the night of June 24–25, 2014. If found, Zina Mirsky please contact Sharon Hester at azra, sharon@azraft. com.

LOST Four blue splash jackets, a farmer john wetsuit, and Announcements a shorty wetsuit washed into the river during a rain storm across from Furnace Flats, above Unkar in BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT August, 2014. If found, please contact Alyssa Garbett, Josephine May Smoldt was born on February 1, 2014, [email protected]. to Dennis Smoldt (azra) and Emma Wharton (gcy). She’s already been on her first river trip and loved it! LOST They are excited to welcome her as part of their family. Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS25 16.1MP Tough Digital Camera with 8x Intelligent Zoom (Blue). It is water resistant. So there is a chance that even if the camera is broken the pictures are still there. Fell into Havasu Creek on June 8, 2014. If found, please return to Eva Marie Gomez, [email protected].

LOST Wedding ring lost at Camp 1911(Kolb inscription), (aka Mile 214) on June 24, 2014. If found, please con- tact Kim Lucy at azra/Grand Canyon Discovery, kim@ azraft.com.

FOUND Wedding ring found at Hot Na Na (river mile 16.6L) on June 14, 2014. Contact Robyn Janssen via email at JOB OPENING [email protected]. Nordic Trail Groomer Wanted, Grand Mesa Nordic Council, based in Western Colorado. Use Cedaredge, FOUND Mesa, or Grand Junction as a winter home base. 20–30 Wedding Ring found in the Little Colorado River on hours per week November and December, then 15–20 July 8, 2014. Contact Bev Caifa, puppysfeet@gmail. hours per week January through March. Starting pay com. at $18 an hour. Contact Dave Knutson, President, gmnc, [email protected]. FOUND A blue duffle with various fishing things and shoes in it. Found floating in an eddy around Mile 190 on July 3, 2014. Contact Laura Fallon, lauraelizabethfallon@ yahoo.com.

Page 40 answer: Neal “Bear” Shapiro and Art Thevenin

page 46 grand canyon river guides Businesses Offering Support

Thanks to the businesses that like to show their support for gcrg by offering varying discounts to members…

Asolo Productions–Film & Video 801/705-7033 Marble Canyon Metal Works–928/355-2253 Aspen Sports–Outdoor gear 928/779-1935 Dr. Mark Falcon–Chiropractor 928/779-2742 Blue Sky Woodcraft–Dories and repairs 970/963-0463 Moenkopi Riverworks–boat rentals & gear 928/526-6622 Boulder Mountain Lodge–800/556-3446 Mom’s Stuff Salve–435/462-2708 Bright Angel Bicycles & Cafe at Mather Pt.–928/814-8704 Mountain Angels Trading Co.–Jewelry 800/808-9787 Canyon Arts–Canyon art by David Haskell 928/567-9873 Mountain Sports–928/226-2885 Canyon Books–Canyon & River books 928/779-0105 Patrick Conley–Realtor 928/779-4596 Canyon R.E.O.–River equipment rental 928/774-3377 Plateau Restoration–Conservation Adventures 435/259-7733 Capitol Hill Neighborhood Acupuncture–206/323-3277 Professional River Outfitters–Rental boats & gear 928/779-1512 CC Lockwood–Photography books 225/769-4766 Randy Rohrig–Rocky Point Casitas rentals 928/522-9064 Ceiba Adventures–Equipment & boat rentals 928/527-0171 River Art & Mud Gallery–River folk art 435/648-2688 Cliff Dwellers Lodge, az–928/355-2228 River Gardens Rare Books–First editions 435/648-2688 Design and Sales Publishing Company–520/774-2147 River Rat Raft and Bike–Bikes and boats 916/966-6777 Down By The River Productions/FaheyFoto–928/226-7131 Rivers & Oceans Travel–La Paz, Baja sailing 800/473-4576 Entrance Mountain Natural Health–360/376-5454 Rescue Specialists–Rescue & 1st Aid 509/548-7875 EPF Classic & European Motorcycles–928/778-7910 RiverGear.com–Put “GUIDZ” for discount code at checkout Five Quail Books–Canyon & River books 928/776-9955 Roberta Motter, cpa–928/774-8078 Flagstaff Native Plant & Seed–928/773-9406 Rubicon Adventures–Mobile cpr & 1st Aid 707/887-2452 Fran Sarena, ncmt–Body work 928/773-1072 Sanderson Carpet Cleaning–Page, az 928/645-3239 Fretwater Press–Holmstrom & Hyde books 928/774-8853 Sierra Rescue–wfr and swiftwater classes 800/208-2723 Funhog Press–Az Hiking Guides 928/779-9788 Sunrise Leather–Birkenstock sandals 800/999-2575 Hell’s Backbone Grill–Restaurant & catering 435/335-7464 The Summit–Boating equipment 928/774-0724 High Desert Boatworks–Dories & Repairs 970/882-3448 Tele Choice–Phone rates 866/277-8660 Humphreys Summit–boating & skiing gear 928/779-1308 Terri Merz, mft–Counselling 702/892-0511 Inner Gorge Trail Guides–Backpacking 877/787-4453 Teva–928/779-5938 Jack’s Plastic Welding–drybags & paco pads 800/742-1904 Vertical Relief Climbing Center–928/556-9909 Dr. Jim Marzolf, dds–Dentist 928/779-2393 Westwater Books–Waterproof river guides 800/628-1326 KC Publications–Books on National Parks 800/626-9673 Wet Dreams–River Equipment and Sewing 928-864-7091 Kingsmark Kennels–Flagstaff pet boarding 928/526-2222 Wilderness Medical Associates–888/945-3633 The Kirk House B&B–Friday Harbor, wa 800/639-2762 Willow Creek Books–Coffee & gear 435/644-8884 Kristen Tinning, ncmt–Rolfing & massage928 /525-3958 Winter Sun–Indian art & herbal medicine 928/774-2884 Laughing Bird Adventures–Sea kayak tours 503/621-1167 Zenith Maritime Academy–360/296-2747 Marble Canyon Lodge–928/355-2225

Care To Join Us?

f you’re not a member yet and would like to be, or if your membership has lapsed, get with the program! Your membership dues help fund many of the worthwhile projects we are pursuing. And you get this fine journal Ito boot. Do it today. We are a 501(c)(3) tax deductible non-profit organization, so send lots of money! You can pay securely on the gcrg website at www.gcrg.org or send a check to: Grand Canyon River Guides, po Box 1934, Flagstaff, az 86002-1934. Note whether you’re a guide member or general member.

$40 1-year membership $16 Short-sleeved t-shirt size______$175 5-year membership $18 Long-sleeved t-shirt size______$350 Life membership $12 Baseball cap $500 Benefactor* $8 Insulated gcrg 20th Anniversary mug $1000 Patron (A grand, get it?)* *benefactors and patrons get a life membership, a silver split twig figurine pendant, and our undying gratitude.

boatman’s quarterly review page 47 Box 1934 Flagstaff, az 86002 boatman’s quarterly review NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED U.S. POSTAGE PAID MEDFORD, OR PERMIT NO. 110

Thanks to all you poets, photographers, writers, artists, and to all of you who send us stuff. Don’t ever stop. Special thanks to the Walton Family Foundation, the Adopt-a-Boatman sponsors, “Circle of Friends” contributors, and innumerable gcrg members for their generous and much appreciated support of this publication.

Parting Shot

I can’t wait to get down to the Confluence! How about you?

I just hope the lunch buffet is good.